A staff member checks the plane at Liuji Airport in Xiangyang City, central China's Hubei Province, March 29, 2020. Domestic passenger flights resumed operations in Hubei Province, except in the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)
All passenger and cargo flights on domestic air routes via airports in Hubei were resumed from Sunday, except for the Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan.
WUHAN, March 29 (Xinhua) -- With a Fuzhou Airlines flight departing Yichang city on Sunday morning, civil aviation service began to resume in central China's Hubei Province after a suspension for the control of the novel coronavirus outbreak in January.
Flight FU6779 with 64 passengers left the Three Gorges Airport in Yichang for Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province.
According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, except for the Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, all passenger and cargo flights on domestic air routes via airports in Hubei were resumed from Sunday.
A flight attendant leads passengers as they board the flight at Liuji Airport in Xiangyang City, central China's Hubei Province, March 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)
The province hard hit by the COVID-19 outbreak lifted outbound travel restrictions on highway traffic in all areas except Wuhan on March 25, with all checkpoints at expressway exits, national and provincial-level highways reopened within two days, as the virus outbreak continues to subdue.
Xu Zuoqiang, chairman and general manager of the Three Gorges Airport, said that before the resumption of flights, the airport had carried out a comprehensive disinfection and organized staff training for epidemic control and prevention.
The airport has newly installed thermal imaging equipment for mass body temperature checks on people in the departure and arrival halls. Isolation areas have also been prepared to quarantine people tested with fever. ■
