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US scraps plan to ban Chinese airline flights, allows just two round trips weekly

  • The dispute between Washington and Beijing over air travel limits is just one of many points of tension in the bilateral relationship
  • US-China air routes are among the most lucrative in the world, but the airline industry has been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic

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Air China aeroplane sits at a gate at Los Angeles International Airport in 2018. Photo: AFP

The US government has abandoned plans for an all-out ban on flights by Chinese carriers into the country but will still heavily restrict incoming services after China eased its own limits on US operators.

Under restrictions announced by the Department of Transportation (DOT) on Friday, a total of two round-trip passenger flights operated by Chinese carriers will be allowed weekly to and from the US.

Protesting coronavirus-related restrictions implemented by Beijing on international flights, the Trump administration had said on Wednesday it would bar all Chinese flights into the US, beginning on June 16.
That prompted the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on Thursday to announce an easing of restrictions on international flights, allowing US carriers to reinstate once-a-week flights into China. Under the CAAC’s relaxed regulations, foreign carriers would be given the option to increase the frequency of flights into Chinese cities if no passenger tests positive for the coronavirus for three consecutive weeks.

While it was pulling back from the original plan to suspend all Chinese passenger flights as a result of Beijing’s relaxation, the DOT complained on Friday that Beijing’s moves had not gone far enough, and continued “to impede the ability of US carriers to ‘achieve equality of opportunity’”.

“We find that these circumstances continue to warrant the Department’s action to restore a competitive balance and fair and equal opportunity among US and Chinese air carriers in the scheduled passenger service marketplace,” the department said in its order, which is effective immediately.

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