Musicians perform during the Downtown Jazz Weekend at the Vancouver Art Gallery plaza in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on June 27, 2026.  (Photo by Liang Sen/Xinhua)

The Hangzhou-Qingdao-Vancouver route, operated by Capital Airlines, will resume service on October 2, the Global Times learned from Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport on Wednesday. 

The route from Qingdao to Vancouver will last for 11 hours and 20 minutes, taking off at 12:20 am in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province and arrive at Vancouver at 8:40 am local time, five times per week with A330, according to a schedule shown on travel agency Trip.com, and the economy ticket is priced at 4,372 yuan ($678.35).

The resumption of the flight comes after the Canadian government in April announced an incremental increase in the number of direct flights between Canada and China, a move aimed at boosting bilateral trade and strengthening their economic relations.

According to a news release from Transport Canada, under the new arrangement, Canadian and Chinese airlines are now permitted to incrementally increase direct passenger-combination flights, operate up to 20 all-cargo flights per week, and gain reciprocal access to all points in each country.

"Increasing passenger and cargo flights with China is a very positive step towards our trade diversification goals while also reinforcing our strong people-to-people ties," said Steven MacKinnon, Canada's minister of transport.

Expanding direct air connections with China strengthens the trade corridors Canadian exporters rely on to reach global markets each day, advances Canada's goal of increasing exports to China by 50 percent, while contributing to Canada's long-term economic growth, the Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu.

According to data from VariFlight sent to the Global Times on Wednesday, between July 19 and August 18, a total of seven airlines operated direct passenger flights between Chinese mainland and Canada. These included Air Canada, Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, and Sichuan Airlines. 

During this period, 366 one-way flights were operated in total, of which Air Canada accounted for 156 flights, or 42.6 percent, making it the largest single carrier. The six Chinese mainland carriers together operated 210 flights, representing 57.4 percent of the total.

Over the past year, the recovery of the direct flights has accelerated noticeably, with flight volumes increasing by 45.8 percent compared to the same period in 2025, VariFlight said. 

However, current capacity still stands at only 37.3 percent of the pre-pandemic level seen in 2019. Air Canada's capacity has recovered to 51.3 percent of its 2019 level, while the combined recovery rate for Chinese carriers is 31.1 percent. 

The current recovery remains largely concentrated on core trunk routes connecting Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou with Vancouver and Toronto. The number of active city-pairs between the two countries has increased from 8 in the same period of 2025 to 9, but remains far below the 17 city-pairs recorded in 2019. Overall, the China-Canada direct flight market is transitioning from low-level recovery to intensified service seen on core trunk routes. 

However, direct flights to Montreal and Calgary, as well as services from multiple second-tier Chinese cities, have yet to be restored, and the route network still lags considerably behind pre-pandemic levels, VariFlight said. 

On June 3, Air Canada restarted flight from Toronto to Shanghai. Luo Weidong, Consul General of China in Toronto attended and addressed a celebration event marking the resumption of Air Canada's direct Toronto-Shanghai flight service, according to the official website of Ministry of Commerce. 

In his remarks, Luo noted that the resumed service will promote "hard connectivity" in air transportation, "soft connectivity" in economic, trade and investment cooperation, and "people-to-people connectivity" in cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. 

Air Canada suspended the Toronto-Shanghai direct route in January 2020. 

Global Times