Although China has eased some restrictions on international travel, airfares to China have gone through the roof.
The Wall Street Journal found sometimes by as much as 10-fold compared to before the pandemic.
Flights are now thousands of dollars, compared to hundreds previously.
It found one-way economy United Airlines flights from San Francisco to Shanghai now $4,000.
The WSJ says flying out of San Francisco can mean fares 10 times higher than usual.
Economy tickets from Chicago to China cost about six times what they did in 2019.
As well as high fuel costs, it is simple airline economics.
There is a dearth of flights in and out of China, with schedules strictly controlled.
Only four carriers operate direct flights to the country from the US.
There used to be dozens of direct daily flights.
Beijing’s continued zero-Covid policy has kept flight availability deliberately low.
