The sharp contraction in air traffic between China and Japan is extending into April after thousands of flights were canceled during the peak cherry blossom season in March, highlighting the strained relations weighing on airline operations and tourism demand in Japan.

Data from Flight Master, a Chinese civil aviation data provider, showed that all scheduled flights on 53 China-Japan routes were canceled in March, typically one of the busiest travel periods between the two countries.

In total, 2,691 flights between the Chinese mainland and Japan were cancelled during the month, representing a cancellation rate of 49.6 percent, up 1.1 percentage points from February, the data showed.

Several previously popular routes were suspended. Flights between Beijing Daxing International Airport and Kansai International Airport in Osaka had 125 planned departures in March but none actually operated, while services between Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Sapporo were also canceled.

Other routes from northeastern Chinese cities, such as Shenyang to Osaka and Dalian to Fukuoka, similarly recorded cancellation rates of 100 percent, according to the data.

The contraction continued into April. Aviation data provider VariFlight showed as of April 19, that only a limited number of Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and a handful of regional hubs, still maintained direct flights to Japan.

Meanwhile, Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Central China’s Hubei province has no remaining direct passenger flights to Japan, according to local media reports. Routes linking Wuhan to Tokyo and Osaka had already been suspended in mid-February, forcing travelers to transfer via Beijing or Shanghai and significantly extending travel time.

Chinese airlines have also moved to extend ticket flexibility policies. Major airlines, including Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, said in January that passengers holding tickets for Japan-related routes could rebook or cancel free of charge for flights scheduled between March 29 and Oct 24, extending an earlier policy that had covered departures up until late March.

Tourism data suggests demand has weakened sharply. Japan received 291,600 visitors from the Chinese mainland in March, a 55.9 percent decline from a year earlier, extending the drop to a fourth consecutive month, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

Airlines and travel platforms say passenger load factors on remaining China-Japan flights have dropped to roughly 40 percent to 48 percent, well below the industry’s typical break-even level of around 70 percent, making many routes commercially unviable.

The sharp contraction in travel traffic came after erroneous remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi regarding China's Taiwan. Since then, travel demand from the Chinese mainland has continued to weaken and Chinese airlines have gradually reduced capacity on Japan routes, particularly those tied to leisure travel.

If demand remains weak, analysts say airlines are likely to keep shifting aircraft capacity toward stronger outbound markets such as Southeast Asia and Europe while maintaining reduced services to Japan.