The United States government will suspend 44 flights to China from America
by four Chinese airlines. The move is in response to the Chinese
government's decision to suspend some US airline flights due to COVID-19
concerns.
"The suspension will begin on January 30 with a Los Angeles-to-Xiamen flight
scheduled for Xiamen Airlines and last through March 29," the US Department
of Transportation said.
The decision will suspend some flights by Xiamen, Air China, China Southern
Airlines and China Eastern Airlines. Previously, since December 31, Chinese
authorities had suspended 20 United Airlines, 10 American Airlines and 14
Delta Air Lines flights, after several passengers tested positive for
COVID-19.
As recently as Tuesday, the Department of Transportation said, the Chinese
government had announced the cancellation of new US flights.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said the
policy for international passenger flights entering China had been "applied
equally to Chinese and foreign airlines in a fair, open and transparent
manner."
"The US move is completely unreasonable. We urge the US side to stop
interfering with and restricting normal passenger flights by Chinese
airlines," Pengyu said.
Airlines for America, a trade group representing three US airlines affected
by China's move along with others, said it supported Washington's actions to
ensure fair treatment of US airlines in the Chinese market.
The Ministry of Transport, said France and Germany had taken similar action
against China's COVID-19 measures. It said China's suspension of 44 flights
"is detrimental to the public interest and requires proportionate remedial
action."
The department added that China's "unilateral actions against the mentioned
US airlines are inconsistent" with the bilateral agreement. China has also
suspended many US flights by Chinese airlines after passengers later tested
positive.
Beijing and Washington have been arguing about air service since the start
of the pandemic. In August, the US Department of Transportation restricted
four flights from the Chinese carrier to 40 percent passenger capacity for
four weeks, after Beijing imposed the same limit on four United Airlines
flights.
Prior to the recent cancellations, three US airlines and four Chinese
airlines operated about 20 flights a week between countries, well below the
more than 100 per week before the pandemic.
