Travelers notified of diversion of flights

The diversion of inbound flights headed for Beijing to other airports has been running smoothly since Friday, but passengers are being reminded of the risk of missing their connection flights if they choose to transfer at Beijing, according to aviation authorities.

Inbound travelers should also truthfully report their health conditions and cooperate with border quarantine officers, or they may be denied entry into China, the National Immigration Administration said.

"Beijing, as an international exchange center, has become the main battlefield for the prevention and control of novel coronavirus introduced from overseas by infected travelers," Sun Shaohua, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China's operations and monitoring center, said at a news conference on Monday.

Beijing Capital International Airport, an important international hub that handles over 200 international passenger flights weekly and has connections with 33 countries, is now at the forefront of fighting imported cases, he added.

According to aviation statistics provider VariFlight, 231 inbound flights are scheduled to terminate at the airport this week.

In order to create a safety net for inbound passengers and improve customs clearance efficiency, multiple departments rolled out a policy on Friday to divert international flights arriving at Beijing Capital to three other airports and expanded the list of airports to 12 on Sunday.

With the new measure effective on Monday, all incoming international flights to Beijing would land at one of the 12 airports, where passengers would be screened. Passengers who are cleared would then be permitted to reboard the plane, which would take them on to Beijing.

Given that the process may take a long time, immigration authorities reminded travelers of the possible need to make changes in their flights transferring at Beijing.

"We suggest that transfer passengers take into consideration the time needed for completing the entry procedures and health checkups," Liu Haitao, director of the National Immigration Administration's border inspection department, said on Monday.

He suggested travelers make prudent decisions on choosing Beijing as a connection stopover and be prepared in case they miss connecting flights.

In light of the pandemic situation overseas, immigration authorities also require all inbound travelers to truthfully report information including contact persons, destination addresses and personal contact information.

Entry will be denied to those who do not meet the requirements or fail to truthfully fill in their health declaration forms or honestly answer inquiries from the border inspection authorities, Liu said.

Lu Likang, 24, a postgraduate student at Stockholm School of Economics who was part of an exchange program in Paris, had his flight diverted to Tianjin on Sunday.

As the coronavirus outbreak escalated in France, his family in Shiyan, Hubei province, persuaded him to return. He booked a direct flight to Beijing.

"After landing at Tianjin Binhai International Airport at about 1 pm, I stayed for about three hours on the plane waiting for health checkups. We waited to get off group by group, and I was sitting in the last few rows at the back," he said.

Because 10 passengers on the flight were found to have fever or respiratory symptoms, 161 passengers were categorized as close contacts. The 10 people were taken by ambulance to designated hospitals in Tianjin; the 161 close contacts including Lu and 10 crew members were taken to a local hotel for 14 days of quarantine. The remaining passengers later took the same flight to Beijing.

"Although I'm almost exhausted after the long flight and the health inspections, and did not land at Beijing as expected, I felt reassured just being back to China," Lu said.