Severe weather, aircraft shortages, and strategic schedule cuts are combining to create an unusually turbulent period for air travel between Japan, China, and Tibet in late January 2026.

More than 48 flights have been scrapped and at least 427 delayed across key hubs including Tokyo, Beijing, and Lhasa, stranding and rerouting thousands of passengers at the height of the winter travel season.

Travelers bound for or transiting through East Asia’s busiest gateways are being urged to check flight status repeatedly, anticipate long waits, and be prepared for last minute changes to routings and even dates of travel.

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Weather Turmoil and Network Cuts Collide Across East Asia

While individual flight cancellations are a regular feature of winter operations across Japan and northern China, this latest wave of disruption is being described by aviation analysts as a “multi-front” crisis. A powerful band of snow and low visibility has swept across parts of Japan and Western China, forcing carriers such as Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Chengdu Airlines, and Tibet Airlines to ground aircraft on short notice. At the same time, Chinese and Japanese airlines are pursuing deeper schedule reductions on Japan–China routes, compounding the chaos for passengers trying to rebook.

Industry data compiled from aviation tracking platforms and carrier advisories indicates that more than 48 flights operated by major airlines in Japan, China, and Tibet have been outright canceled in recent days, with over 427 delayed as crews and aircraft struggle to stay on rotation. The impact has been felt disproportionately at major international hubs like Tokyo Haneda and Narita, Beijing Capital, and regional gateways such as Lhasa Gonggar and airports in Xinjiang that feed into Tibet and western China.

The result is an intricate web of operational issues: some cancellations are purely weather related, while others reflect deeper structural capacity cuts that have been unfolding from December 2025 into January 2026. The upshot for travelers is the same. Flights that once had multiple daily frequencies are now down to one or none on certain days, leaving fewer backup options when storms or air traffic constraints trigger rolling delays.

Tokyo’s Haneda and Narita Under Pressure as JAL and ANA Trim Operations

Tokyo’s twin hubs, Haneda and Narita, are at the center of the disruption from the Japanese side. All Nippon Airways has confirmed at least a dozen cancellations spanning both domestic and international flights as winter weather and operational constraints force last minute schedule adjustments. Affected routes include regional services from Haneda to smaller airports like Noto, Toyama, Tottori, Shonai, and Kumamoto, as well as long haul links such as a Chicago O’Hare to Narita operation that has seen its rotation interrupted.

Japan Airlines has been running a constrained network backdrop since mid-December 2025, when one of its Airbus A350-1000 aircraft was damaged while parked at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. The carrier has said that, because of this and other fleet allocation pressures, it will continue canceling selected flights and downgrading aircraft types through at least January 30, 2026. That structural reduction means fewer spare aircraft are available to recover when snowstorms or runway closures hit Haneda or Narita, intensifying knock-on delays and leaving passengers with limited rebooking options on already full services.

Japanese authorities have been warning of heavy snow and dangerous driving conditions across wide swaths of the country, prompting not only aviation disruptions but also road closures and the suspension of some rail services. At airports, the combination of de-icing delays, airfield congestion, and crew duty-time limits has turned even modest weather events into long chains of late arrivals and missed connections, affecting travelers trying to onward connect from Tokyo to North America, Southeast Asia, or domestic Japanese destinations.

On the Chinese side of the air corridor, several carriers are enacting deep cuts to Japan services just as winter weather and airport congestion peak. Air China, the country’s flag carrier, has recently reduced its Japan network by more than 40 percent for the Northern Winter 2025–26 season, trimming its weekly flights from 184 to 104 across Japan-bound routes. Key reductions include the cancellation or scaling back of services from Beijing Capital to Nagoya, Okinawa, Osaka Kansai, Sapporo, and both Tokyo Haneda and Narita, as well as cuts from Chengdu Tianfu, Chongqing, Dalian, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and other Chinese cities to Japanese gateways.

Air China has now gone a step further by announcing the complete suspension of its Tokyo Narita to Beijing Capital route from January 26 to March 28, 2026. Until late December, the airline operated two round-trip flights per day on this key trunk, but had already suspended one frequency. The latest move means that, for at least two months, there will be no direct Air China-operated link between these two strategic hubs. Passengers booked on the affected flights are being offered free changes to alternative services or full refunds, but options are limited given that remaining routes are themselves reduced and heavily booked.

Other Chinese airlines have followed a similar trajectory. Juneyao Airlines has cut or suspended seven Japan–China routes, including Kobe–Nanjing, Osaka Kansai–Wuxi, Osaka Kansai–Changsha, and reductions on Osaka Kansai–Beijing Daxing, Osaka Kansai–Nanjing, and key Nagoya services. Additional impacted carriers, including China Southern, have either cut frequencies or removed entire city pairs between China and Japan. According to Chinese aviation app data cited in domestic media, more than 2,000 China to Japan flights in January 2026 have already been canceled, affecting tens of thousands of passengers and leaving entire bilateral routes without service for stretches of weeks.

Lhasa and Western China See Severe Delays as Mountain Weather Closes In

Further west, Tibet and surrounding regions are grappling with their own set of disruptions driven primarily by harsh winter conditions and the operational challenges of flying into high-altitude airports. Tibet Airlines has recorded at least 16 cancellations on routes connecting Lhasa with cities such as Xi’an and Xining, as snowstorms and low visibility render approaches into mountain-surrounded airfields unsafe or impossible for long stretches of the day.

Xi’an to Lhasa, one of the critical feeder routes into the Tibetan capital, has been plagued by long delays. Historical performance data for flights such as Tibet Airlines’ TV9996 between Xi’an and Lhasa show that on this corridor fewer than six in ten flights arrive on time, with average delays stretching over six hours. In recent days, halts in operations caused by runway closures, airspace restrictions, and the need for extra safety checks in icy conditions have worsened punctuality even further, forcing airlines to roll delays into the next operational day or simply cancel rotations outright.

Regional carriers such as Chengdu Airlines have also reported a cluster of cancellations across Xinjiang and other western provinces, particularly at airports like Aksu, Kashgar, Yining, Shache, and Bole Alashankou. Fog, freezing temperatures, and limited ground-handling capacity mean that once a delay builds, it can take hours or even days for the local network to reset. With a number of these flights feeding into or out of Lhasa and other Tibetan gateways, disruptions in the western Chinese domestic network are cascading into international and transregional itineraries involving Japan and other Asian markets.

Ripple Effects Across Asia as Passengers Scramble to Rebook

The combined effect of cancellations, delays, and longer term schedule cuts is being felt far beyond the immediate hubs of Tokyo, Beijing, and Lhasa. Travelers originating in North America and Europe and connecting through Japan into China, or vice versa, are discovering that once a flight segment is canceled there may be no realistic same-day or next-day alternative on the same route. With Air China’s cutbacks and the suspension of specific routes, some journeys that once involved a single connection now require two or more stops, or an entirely different gateway such as Shanghai, Seoul, or Hong Kong.

Airport departure boards across the region this week have shown dense clusters of delayed flights, with typical hold times measured in the hundreds of minutes rather than tens on some routes. Airlines are rebooking where possible, but with aircraft already fully loaded for the Lunar New Year travel buildup, spare seats are scarce. Some passengers are being forced to accept longer layovers, overnight stays, or rerouting through secondary cities, while others are opting for refunds and postponing or cancelling their trips altogether.

Travel agencies and online booking platforms report a surge in inquiries and change requests for itineraries touching Japan and China, particularly those involving smaller regional airports or mountain destinations like Tibet. Where rerouting is feasible, agents are pushing passengers toward more resilient trunk routes and larger hubs that have multiple daily frequencies and better weather infrastructure. However, the current combination of structural capacity cuts and winter weather means even these options are far from immune to disruption.

What Affected Travelers Need to Know Right Now

For passengers with upcoming travel to or through Tokyo, Beijing, Lhasa, or smaller airports in Japan and Western China, the message from carriers and regulators is to stay proactive. Airlines including Air China, Japan Airlines, ANA, Tibet Airlines, and Juneyao are all allowing some degree of flexibility on affected tickets, often including fee waivers for date changes or refunds on canceled flights. In many cases, however, the onus is on the traveler to request these changes and to monitor flight status closely in the 24 to 72 hours before departure.

Experts advise that travelers confirm not only the status of individual flights but also the operational status of the route itself. In some instances, as with the Tokyo Narita to Beijing Capital suspension or the full cancellation of selected China–Japan city pairs, routes are being removed from schedules for weeks at a time. Passengers who see their flights vanish from airline systems should not assume an automatic rebooking will appear, and may need to contact the airline or their travel provider directly to avoid last minute surprises at the airport.

Checking in as soon as possible when online check-in opens, ensuring contact details are up to date in airline profiles, and downloading carrier apps can also improve the chances of receiving timely notifications and securing alternative seats when disruptions occur. Travelers to Tibet and other high-altitude or weather-sensitive destinations are being urged to build in extra buffer days at the start or end of their itinerary, as repeated multi-hour delays on feeder flights have become increasingly common during this winter period.

How Long Could the Turbulence Last for Tokyo, Beijing, and Lhasa?

Looking ahead, airline and airport officials do not expect conditions to normalize quickly. On the structural side, several key route suspensions and capacity reductions are scheduled to remain in effect through late March 2026, covering the remainder of the Northern Hemisphere winter season. Air China’s suspension of Tokyo Narita to Beijing Capital until March 28 and Juneyao’s reductions extending into late February and early March point to a thinner, less resilient network for at least two more months.

Weather patterns are also unlikely to offer much relief in the short term. Japanese meteorological authorities have warned that heavy snow and blizzard conditions could reoccur throughout late January, particularly on the Sea of Japan side, while northern and western China, including Xinjiang and the Tibetan Plateau, remain firmly in the grip of winter. For airports at elevation, such as Lhasa Gonggar, even modest deteriorations in visibility or wind conditions can close down operations entirely until conditions improve, creating a backlog of flights that cannot always be cleared within a single operating day.

For travelers, that combination of persistent winter weather and scheduled capacity cuts means that flexibility and contingency planning will be crucial. Those who can shift travel dates outside peak periods, route through alternative hubs, or accept longer travel times may find it easier to secure seats and avoid the worst of the disruption. For now, though, Japan, China, and Tibet remain some of the most challenging regions in the world for air travelers, with flight boards and call centers bearing the brunt of a storm that shows little sign of clearing in the immediate future.