News
Airlines axe flights on 58 routes between China and Japan during the Lunar New Year period
February 13th 2026
There has been a loss of 58 routes and 1,292 round-trip flights operated during the 2026 Lunar New Year period, compared to last year’s holidays, the Chinese media informed. Read More » Most canceled flights were on routes from Chinese cities to Osaka, with all 67 flights from Beijing Daxing International Airport, 20 from Ningbo Lishe International Airport, and 20 from Shenyang Taoxian International Airport to Osaka’s Kansai International Airport suspended. The biggest drop in flight numbers was on routes from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to Kansai and Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. Some secondary city routes launched after the Covid-19 pandemic have also been progressively axed, including Dalian-Chubu, Qingdao-Shizuoka, and Shanghai-Okayama. Flights from China to airports in Japan’s Sendai, Ibaraki, Niigata, Toyama, Komatsu, Kobe, Okayama, Saga, Nagasaki, and Kagoshima have been fully canceled. Chinese media reports that the cancellation rate is especially high for flights to Kansai, as most Chinese travelers there are tourists, while those traveling to cities like Tokyo do so mainly for business, making them less likely to change their plans. Japanese media note that Tokyo airports have stricter slot-use rules, making it more likely that airlines from China will lose unused slots. The cancellations follow the Chinese government’s warning to its citizens to avoid traveling to Japan, amid a diplomatic dispute between the countries that began in November last year. At the end of January this year, China specifically warned its citizens against travelling to Japan during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, citing deteriorating public security.
