The check-in counter of China Southern Airlines in Beijing Daxing International Airport File Photo: Tu Lei/GT

After weathering the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic for nearly half a year, Chinese air carriers were beginning to see light through the dark clouds, until a new coronavirus outbreak in Beijing cast another dark shadow over the industry. 

Beijing Capital International Airport had canceled 377 flights as of 10:00 pm Wednesday, accounting for more than 46 percent of the total planned flight for the day, according to data VariFlight sent to the Global Times. Meanwhile, Beijing Daxing International Airport canceled 197 flights on the same day, representing more than 50 percent of its total planned flights.

On Tuesday night, Beijing raised its COVID-19 emergency response status to level II, under which residents planning to travel are required to test negative for the virus within seven days of departing the city.

On Wednesday, a notice issued by Air China's official website showed that due to the outbreak in Beijing, there were large delays or cancellations of inbound and outbound flights. As of 11:00 pm, 295 of its flights to or from Beijing were canceled.

The outbreak comes as China's civil aviation industry had shown signs of a strong recovery.

Civil Aviation Administration of China said the passenger traffic in May was 25.831 million, an increase of 54.54 percent from the previous month. According to a report from Caising Securities on June 11, it is expected that domestic air passenger traffic will normalize sometime in June, while international air passenger traffic will resume sometime in August. 

Insiders said Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines have relatively large market shares in Beijing and will also be greatly affected by the virus.

The aviation industry was gradually recovering before the new virus outbreak, and business trip were increasing. Ticket sales were also on the rise in advance of next week's Dragon Boat Festival holiday. 

However, as the city on Tuesday raised its COVID-19 emergency response status, "the civil aviation industry will be hit again as travelling will be limited," Qi Qi, a market watcher told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"If Beijing's market can't see a quick rebound, the nation's traffic growth will be deeply hurt," Zheng Hongfeng, CEO of VariFlight told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Public opinion research in the first week of June showed greater caution among travelers in returning to travel. Only 45 percent of travelers surveyed intend to return to the skies within a few months of the pandemic subsiding. A further 36 percent said that they would wait for another six months. That is a significant shift from April 2020 when 61 percent said that they would return to travel within a few months of the pandemic subsiding and 21 percent responded that they would wait for about six months, according to the International Air Transport Association.