SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) —According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), starting March 29, Chinese airlines will be limited to fly just one weekly route to one city per country, preventing coronavirus cases being imported into the country. Meanwhile, airlines of other countries are also restricted to operate only one route to one city per week to China.
To avoid being cross-infected during the hurried journey home, which is a nearly 15-hour flight, many Syracuse University international students from China chose to stay in Syracuse until May. However, this new policy suddenly made their hope for going home dash to pieces, with tickets becoming extremely difficult to snag and unprecedentedly scarce.
Xinan Huang, majoring in Finance at Whitman School of Management at SU, is one of these students who missed the lottery that brings them home.
“Because of the new regulations, my original flight on May 2nd was canceled, I have to re-book for mid-month, and the price is doubled,” she said.
As the price of non-stop flights from New York or Los Angeles to China is skyrocketing, many students are looking for new ways to go home in the summer. Some students decide to fly from New York to European cities like Amsterdam or London first and then take a connecting flight there back to China. Others choose to take a connecting flight in Asian cities like Seoul or Tokyo.
However, Xinan’s journey is a bit longer than those students who fly first to Europe or East Asia. Her 29-hour connecting flight is at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia, in Africa.
“When there are not a lot of choices left, you just choose the one you can choose, ” she said.
While overseas Chinese students are taking a high risk of being infected at the airport or on the plane, parents are trying their best to help their children, even though they are almost 7000 miles away from home.
“My parents have already sent me hundreds of protective masks, clothing, and glasses,” Xinan said.
