Ethiopian Airlines’ flight suspended again

China’s civil aviation regulator has issued its third suspension order on Ethiopian Airlines’ flight from Addis Ababa to Shanghai, the most punished flight since the start of the pandemic.

Flight ET684 will be grounded for four weeks from November 30 after 11 passengers tested positive for COVID-19 on October 20, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Tuesday.

The flight is being grounded from Monday for five weeks after over a dozen passengers tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival at the Pudong airport this month.

Five passengers on the flight tested positive on arrival at Pudong on October 6, while an additional 10 travelers on the same flight tested positive on October 13, the CAAC said. The infected passengers were quarantined after they arrived.

Prior to that, the flight was suspended for a week from August 31 after six passengers tested positive.

Under CAAC policies, if the number of passengers testing positive reaches five, flights will be suspended for a week. The suspension will last for four weeks if 10 passengers test positive.

If all inbound passengers on a flight test negative for the novel coronavirus for three weeks in a row, airlines will be allowed to increase flights to two per week.

Over a dozen flights to Shanghai, including those with Aeroflot, China Eastern, Etihad, Juneyao and Sir Lanka, have been suspended since the mechanism was first introduced in June.