Ever since I published the article about International flights to Shanghai to be diverted, people have been asking several questions about this subject.
Therefore, I compiled the following FAQ based on the feedback collected.
Do we have a list of those international flights that will be diverted and where will they be diverted to?
A total of 106 flights on 22 routes involving Air China, China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines, Juneyao Airlines and Spring Airlines are impacted.
As of now, only China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines have jointly announced a list of 14 diverted routes and you can check out the list on the post here.
The other airlines (Air China, Juneyao Airlines and Spring Airlines) should be publishing their affected routes soon and we will have the other 8 diverted routes added as soon as they become announced.
Will the foreign airlines be affected by this?
At the time of posting, the foreign airlines have not been asked to have their Shanghai routes diverted.
My personal opinion is that the foreign airlines will not be affected by this because some of these flights already have a technical layover in Seoul, South Korea and may not serve flights to the designated diverted airports.
Again, this is just my personal take on this so I could be right or proven wrong later on so let’s just wait for the official announcement.
Does a diverted route mean that the return flight should also depart from the diverted airport?
No, and let’s take an example here from the list published by China Eastern/Shanghai Airlines: MU772 from Amsterdam to Shanghai.
Under the new announcement, passengers on flight MU772 will be be traveling from Amsterdam to Chengdu.
After disembarking the passengers at Chengdu Airport and disinfection, the plane will continue the route passengers-less to Shanghai.
So the passengers on the return flight MU771 will fly from Shanghai back to Amsterdam.