BEIJING — China's civil aviation regulator said on July 17 that Japan Airlines, Lao Airlines, and Hainan Airlines are allowed to increase their number of international flights because of their effective COVID-19 control measures.

Flights JL829/0 between Tokyo and Dalian, flights QV815/6 between Vientiane and Kunming, flights HU491/2 between Beijing and Brussels, and flights HU7975/6 between Beijing and Toronto are the second batch of "rewarded flights" following the introduction of a reward-and-suspension system by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on June 4.

The number of these roundtrip flights can be increased from one to two per week until Oct 24, according to the CAAC.

Japan Airlines and Lao Airlines are the first two foreign airlines to be rewarded.

According to the CAAC policy, if all inbound passengers test negative for novel coronavirus for three weeks in a row, the airline will be allowed to increase the number of flights to two per week.

If the number of passengers testing positive reaches five, the airline's flights will be suspended for a week. The suspension will last four weeks if the number of passengers testing positive reaches 10.

The measure to resume some international passenger flights aims to balance epidemic control with economic and social development, said the CAAC.