The United States previously planned to prevent all Chinese airlines from flying inside the country by June 16.
Washington:
The US Department of Transportation said Friday it would allow Chinese air carriers to operate two flights a week after Beijing said it would ease restrictions on coronaviruses to allow more foreign carriers.
Washington announced on Wednesday that it will prevent all Chinese airlines from traveling to the United States by June 16, due to restrictions Beijing has imposed on American carriers. The revised Ministry of Transportation order halved the four weekly roundtrip flights by Chinese passenger carriers that flew to the United States and take effect immediately.
The ministry said if China takes further steps for US carriers, it is “fully prepared to reconsider the action.” The notice added that the ministry was “troubled by China’s continued unilateral dictation of the terms of the scheduled passenger air transportation market between the United States and China without respecting the rights of American carriers”.
The announcement defuses a potential new flashpoint in US-China relations. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.
China’s announcement is expected to allow US carriers to resume flights once a week to a city of their choice starting June 8, a fraction of what the US-China air agreement allows.
The US limit affects round-trip US flights by Air China, China Eastern Airlines Corp, China Southern Airlines Co and Xiamen Airlines Co. It is not immediately known which flights will be allowed to continue.
It is also unclear whether U.S. carriers will agree to travel to China once a week when they request approval for two or three daily flights.
Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have asked to resume flights to China this month. The two said they were studying China’s action.
China has said that all airlines can increase the number of international flights involving China to two per week if none of their passengers test positive for COVID-19 for three consecutive weeks.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
