Chinese airlines prepare for passenger rush from Japan
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Chinese airline companies put on additional flights to Japan Wednesday in the wake of the government's decision to evacuate citizens from areas worst hit by last week's earthquake and tsunami, as well as those affected by nuclear leakages.
China Eastern Airlines based in Shanghai will send an additional passenger flight, Airbus 340-300, Wednesday to Niigata Airport, where about 1,500 Chinese nationals are waiting to return to China.
China Eastern has four flights between Shanghai and Niigata every week.
Meanwhile, the Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines, said it has added four additional flights and is expected to carry 4,491 Chinese back from Japan.
The added China Southern flights will go between Shenyang-Tokyo, Harbin-Niigata, and Dalian-Tokyo, the company headquarters said in a statement.
The carrier had 32 flights between Chinese and Japanese cities on Wednesday.
On one of its busiest routes, Shenyang-Tokyo, China Southern has replaced the 178-seater Airbus-321 with the wider 272-seater Airbus-300.
Flights on the Shenyang-Tokyo route were resumed Tuesday, four days after they were canceled on March 11 following the 9.0-magnitude earthquake off Japan's northeast coast that triggered an array of disasters including a massive tsunami.
The country's flagship carrier Air China said on Tuesday that it currently operates 30 flights daily, with more than 7,000 seats, between China and Japan.
