OITA (Kyodo) China Eastern Airlines will resume flights linking Oita and Shanghai on Oct. 27, Oita Prefectural Government officials said Friday.

These flights have been suspended since April due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

The Shanghai-based airline will begin operating two round-trip flights per week using a 156-seat Airbus A320, as it did previously, they said.

The airline launched the service in April 2002, boasting a passenger load of just under 60 percent of capacity.

It faced a wave of cancellations following the SARS outbreak and the war in Iraq, leading the airline to suspend flights on the route.