Tit-for-tat: US to bar Chinese airlines

Tit-for-tat: US to bar Chinese airlines

Flights To Be Suspended From June 16

04.06.2020

The Trump administration said on Wednesday that it would block Chinese passenger airlines from flying into or out of the US starting June 16 in retaliation for a similar ban by the Chinese government on US companies, further escalating tensions between the two economies. Relations have deteriorated in recent weeks as officials scuffled over the origin of the pandemic and China’s move to tighten its authority over Hong Kong.

The aviation dispute threatens to further chill economic relations. Flights between the countries were already sharply curtailed by the pandemic and Chinese restrictions on foreign airlines that effectively halted trips by United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, the major US carriers that go there. China’s aviation regulators said on March 26 that they would limit foreign carriers to one flight per week based on schedules that were in place earlier that month. But those three airlines had already stopped service to the country by then because of the coronavirus. Chinese airlines continued to fly to US cities.

The Chinese restrictions became a problem only in recent weeks, as Delta and United sought to resume flights in June. Both carriers appealed to the Civil Aviation Authority of China but did not receive a reply. Delta said it still hoped to restart flights to China as soon as next week, pending approval, and that the airline appreciated the government’s intervention. United said it would fly to China “when the regulatory environment allows us to do so.”

In January, US and Chinese carriers operated about 325 weekly flights between the two nations. By mid-Feburary, only 20 remained, all of them run by Chinese airlines. The US transport department said it would block any scheduled passenger flight by a Chinese carrier from June 16. “Currently, four Chinese carriers operate scheduled passenger flights between US and China.” NYT NEWS SERVICE

The decision by the US transport department is a response to Beijing’s failure to let American airlines resume flights this week to China