The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said it is investigating alleged price gouging by Turkish Airlines on flights between Turkey and China.
A price list of the flights from Istanbul to Guangzhou went viral online on Dec. 22, showing an economy ticket priced as high as 200,000 yuan ($31,372) and a business class ticket at more than 250,000 yuan.
According to the economic news portal Yicai, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) will now try to determine whether Turkish Airlines violated Chinese laws and bilateral agreements with Turkey, as one of these treaties establishes that ticket prices between both countries must be agreed by Beijing and Ankara.
Yicai stresses that before the pandemic Turkish Airlines charged about 13,000 yuan (2,000 dollars, 1,800 euros) for flights between London and Shanghai.
China almost completely sealed its borders in March 2020 due to the improvement in local data on contagions of covid-19 and the international spread of the pandemic, and since then it has notably reduced the number of permits for the arrival to the country of international flights.
The CAAC announced in October that, until March 2022, it would only allow the arrival of 408 flights from abroad each week, which represents a decrease of more than 36% compared to the figures for the summer season.
At the moment, according to official data, China only authorizes around 2.2% of the total international flights that operated to or from the country before the pandemic.
This has also resulted in significant increases in ticket prices, which, added to a mandatory quarantine of about three weeks – in some cities, even eight – has meant great difficulties for the arrival of people from abroad.
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