Sales agents barred from selling international flights

China has temporarily banned sales agents from touting international air tickets since a one-way ticket to China was speculated to cost over 100,000 yuan ($14,100) amid the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, according to the country's top aviation regulator on Monday.

With the rapid spread of the virus worldwide, China has greatly reduced the number of flights in and out of the country, which has proved to be effective in lowering the risk of imported cases, Sun Shaohua, deputy head of operations and monitoring center of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said at a daily briefing.

Effective March 29, domestic airlines have been required to reduce their international routes to only one per country and cap the number of flights to just one per week. Foreign carriers can only operate one air route to China, also with one flight per week.

However, the demand for inbound travel is greater than supply as the outbreak has been subdued in China. Some sales agents illegally stocked air tickets and resold them at high prices, with some costing over 100,000 yuan per ticket, he added.

The country handled only 250 inbound flights from March 29 to April 14, carrying a total of 50,306 passengers. With the exception of 38 inbound flights on March 29, China saw no more than 20 inbound flights on daily basis, with average daily inbound passengers of about 3,000, according to the administration.

To ensure a stable and orderly international air transportation market and to protect the rights and interests of passengers, the administration ordered all domestic airlines to sell their international tickets directly to the customers in an open and transparent manner without going through third-party distributors, he said.

In addition, carriers should strengthen supervision and regulation to avoid speculation in the aviation market, which would discourage sales agents from selling overpriced tickets, he added.

Sun also noted that the administration will work closely with the market regulation department to punish such malpractices in accordance with the law and also blacklist them in line with the social credit system of the civil aviation sector.