Over two months after the start of the province's complete lockdown, Chinese authorities have reopened all airports in Hubei except Wuhan for domestic services. The province's main gateway is due to reopen on April 8.
Xinhua news agency said the first service to depart from the province was Fuzhou Airlines (FU, Fuzhou) flight FU6779 from Yichang to Fuzhou. It was operated with B737-800 B-7395 (msn 43663) on March 29, 2020, Flightadar24 ADS-B data shows. The aircraft was earlier ferried to Yichang without passengers.
Yichang airport, which serves the Three Gorges Dam, had been closed since January 25, 2020.
Other airports in the province that resumed operations on March 29 include:
- Enshi with a Capital Airlines (China) (JD, Beijing Daxing International) flight to Hangzhou;
- Shiyan with a Loong Air (GJ, Hangzhou) flight to Hangzhou; and
- Xiangyang with a Juneyao Air (HO, Shanghai Hongqiao) flight to Shanghai Pudong.
On March 28, 2020, the authorities lifted a moratorium on interprovincial train services to Hubei, including Wuhan. Commercial activity in the city will gradually resume starting on March 30. However, for the time being, direct flights from Wuhan and other cities in the province to Beijing remain banned.
