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U.S. officials to reduce four Chinese airlines after Beijing suspended operations with U.S. carriers after being found guilty of COVID charges.
The United States government will suspend 44 flights to China from the US and four Chinese planes following the Chinese government’s decision to suspend other U.S. flights due to COVID-19 concerns.
The suspension will begin on January 30 with the departure of Xiamen Airlines from Los Angeles to Xiamen and continue until March 29, the airline said.
The idea is to cut some Xiamen flights, Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.
Chinese authorities have suspended 20 United Airlines flights, 10 American Airlines flights and 14 Delta Air Lines flights since December 31, after some people were found to have COVID-19. As of Tuesday, the Department of Transportation said the Chinese government had announced the suspension of new US aircraft.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington, on Friday said the international airline’s entry into China “applied equally to Chinese and foreign airlines fairly, freely and transparently”.
He also said that the US move was “very unwise” and added, “We urge the US side to stop disrupting and restrict air travel” to Chinese airlines.
Airlines for America, a trade group representing three U.S. carriers affected by China’s migration along with others, said it contributed to Washington’s “ensuring that US airlines are well maintained in the Chinese market”.
The Ministry of Transport says France and Germany have done the same following China’s COVID-19.
It added that China’s suspension of 44 aircraft “was unconstitutional and required reasonable direction”. It also said that “China’s actions against the so-called US carriers are inconsistent” with the bilateral agreement.
China has also suspended several U.S. airlines carrying Chinese passengers after passengers were diagnosed with the virus.
The department said it was ready to resume what it did if China revised its “policies to help improve US carriers”. It warned that if China leaves more planes, “we have the right to take action.”
China has closed its borders to commuters, and reduced international flights to 200 per week, or 2 percent of the epidemic before, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in September.
The number of U.S. aircraft being stopped has been on the rise since December, with the outbreak of the Omicron coronavirus on the rise in the US.
Beijing and Washington have suspended aviation operations since the outbreak began. In August, the U.S. Department of Transportation cut four times from Chinese carriers to 40 percent of passengers in four weeks after Beijing set a similar limit on four United Airlines flights.
Prior to the recent ban, three US aircraft and four Chinese carriers were flying about 20 times a week between countries, less than 100 a week before the epidemic.
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