7 flights this month bring 1,278 overseas Chinese home

China has sent 16 chartered flights since March that carried more than 2,700 Chinese nationals overseas back to the country, an official at the Civil Aviation Administration said on Monday.

Jin Junhao, an official at the administration, said at a press conference that as of 4 pm on Monday, China had sent seven charted flights this month that have brought back 1,278 Chinese citizens from the UK, the US, Italy and Spain, including 1,067 overseas students.

In March, China sent nine charted flights that carried back 1,466 Chinese citizens from Iran and Italy, including overseas students and medical staff, he said.

With the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus worldwide, the administration has issued a policy to reduce international flights but retained 134 flights to and from 61 cities in 40 countries, and launched a mechanism to arrange chartered flights to help overseas students with difficulties return to China, Jin said.

He said next up the administration will continue to work with other departments in an orderly manner to help overseas students who have real difficulties in affected countries and urgently need to return to their home country.