Chinese airlines are canceling flights to Japan amid rising tensions.

With tensions between China and Japan on the rise, Chinese airlines have canceled all flights on 12 routes linking the two nations, leading thousands of travelers from the Chinese mainland to request ticket refunds.

Xiamen Airlines has called off all flights from Hangzhou to Chubu Centrair International Airport, and Hainan Airlines has halted services from Xi’an to New Chitose Airport. Meanwhile, Air China has trimmed its weekly Shanghai-Osaka flights from 21 to 12, and China Eastern Airlines has reduced its Beijing-Osaka route from 14 flights to 6.

According to the latest monitoring data from Flight Steward, the 12 routes where all flights were canceled due to a recent sharp drop in passenger numbers were already operating at relatively low frequencies.

There were originally many flights from Chinese cities to the Kansai International Airport, but most passengers go to Osaka for leisure, so the flight cancellation rate is relatively higher, an industry insider told Yicai. In contrast, many travel to Tokyo for business, making them less likely to change their original plans, the person pointed out.

The number of bookings for flights run by Chinese mainland carriers to Japan dropped by 543,000 on the 18th of November compared with the 15th of November, meaning that more than half a million tickets were canceled between the 15th and the 17th, the three days after domestic carriers announced free refund and rescheduling options, aviation expert Li Hanming told the media.

More than a dozen Chinese airlines, including the three biggest state-owned airlines -- China Eastern, China Southern Airlines, and Air China -- offered refund and rescheduling options free of charge to passengers who had booked flights to Japan between the 15th of November and the 31st of December after China advised its citizens to avoid traveling there amid increasing political tensions between the two nations.

Japanese hotel operators are also facing increasing pressure due to the drop in Chinese visitors, a Chinese-speaking tour guide in the Shikoku region told Yicai. "This is supposed to be the busiest time of the year, but both Chinese tour groups I was scheduled to receive next month canceled, and so the originally peak tourist season is now filled with uncertainty," she noted.

“We’ve already noticed a drop in demand for local reception services from tour groups coming from mainland China,” the tour guide said. “With so many last-minute flight cancellations to Japan by independent travelers, I suspect the number of hotel booking cancellations is even higher.”

"I dare not imagine what will happen if this situation lasts for a year, as it feels like we are going back to the sluggish days during the pandemic," she noted.

South Korea has emerged as the top overseas travel destination for tourists from mainland China, according to data from the Chinese travel platform Qunar. Seoul leads in outbound flight searches, with other favorites including Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Macau, Sydney, and Bali.