SPRING Airlines Co., which lists shares in Shanghai, and Japan Airlines Co. are anticipating a post-pandemic tourism boom between China and Japan for their joint-owned budget carrier, even though Japan still lags behind major economies in reopening its borders.

Spring Airlines Japan Co. had operated seven routes from Narita to Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, Wuhan and other cities, but five of them were suspended due to the virus.

Even so, the carrier is seeking new routes to Chinese coastal cities with populations of more than 10 million people, potentially by March 2024, said Akira Yonezawa, Spring Airlines Japan’s new chief executive officer and former Japan Airlines Co. executive.

Even amid tight restrictions, Japan is becoming the top destination among Chinese for post-virus travels, with 18 percent saying they want to visit, according to the Pacific Asia Travel Association.

Some 90 percent of Spring Airlines Japan’s international passengers are nationals from China.

“Japan is close to China, so it’s easy to travel and there’s a lot of expectation” for traffic between the countries, Yonezawa said.

Japan was betting on a tourism boom from the Olympics, with Chinese visitors pouring money into restaurants and souvenir shops, although that dissipated with the decision to hold a spectator-less games with the closing of the borders in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Even so, Japan is sticking to its target of attracting 60 million annual tourists by 2030.

(SD-Agencies)