After China canceled US flights in recent days, the US Department of Transportation said on Friday that it was suspending 44 Chinese carrier passenger flights.
China has recently canceled 44 US-carrier flights from the United States to China due to COVID-19 concerns, according to the department. The Chinese government has banned flights up to seven days after travelers tested positive for COVID-19 following their arrival in China, according to the report.
US suspends 44 flights by Chinese carriers
According to Reuters, China has halted 20 United Airlines flights, 10 American Airlines flights, and 14 Delta Airlines flights since December 31. The action by the Biden administration would affect Chinese carriers like Xiamen, Air China, China Southern Airlines, and China Eastern Airlines.
The flights will be halted between January 30 and March 29, according to the department, which added that other nations, including France and Germany, have taken similar measures.
Per Newsweek, the US Department of Transportation said in its order canceling the Chinese flights, "China's recent actions affecting the operations of Delta, American, and United as mentioned above are detrimental to the public interest and necessitate appropriate corrective action by the Department."
According to the Department of Transportation's order canceling the Chinese flights, the Chinese government personally clears each and every possible traveler for travel to China before they leave the United States, after checking pre-departure test results and other needed documents.
The Department of Transportation also stated that if China's Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) continues to block flights, "We reserve the right to take additional action." China's suspension of flights between China and the United States has harmed companies.
China has taken stringent efforts to limit the virus's transmission and continues to advocate for a COVID-free policy. Beijing announced its first domestically transmitted case of the Omicron variant on January 15, just weeks before the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
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China's flight suspensions leave travellers stranded
Dwight Law, a Shanghai-based American expat, travelled back to Kansas in November when his father died, leaving his wife and dog behind in China while he looked into his father's affairs. Law, who owns an architecture and design business, had planned to return to Shanghai last week.
However, with Chinese officials suspending hundreds of flights between China and the United States due to travelers testing positive for COVID-19 on arrival, obtaining a trip back even in February is proving near-impossible, posing a danger to Law's firm.
Even before the recent flight cancellations, international capacity to and from China was just 2% of pre-COVID levels, owing to China's stringent zero-COVID policy of stamping out all cases while other regions of the world open up.
The zero-COVID approach is expected to last until most of 2022, according to Bank of America Securities analysts, which is bad news for China's 845,000 foreign passport holders, a figure that has already decreased since the coronavirus pandemic began.
According to a study published last Friday by Chinese aviation data firm flight master, China's aviation authorities halted 143 return flights in January alone as the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreads throughout the world.
The policy for international passenger flights entering China has "been implemented equally to Chinese and foreign airlines in a fair, open, and transparent manner," according to Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
"We ask the US side to avoid interrupting and limiting legitimate passenger flights" by Chinese airlines, he said, calling the US decision "extremely unfair," The Strait Times reported. Airlines for America, a trade organization that represents the three US airlines affected by China's decision, as well as others, said it backed Washington's actions to assure the equitable treatment of US airlines in the Chinese market.
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