U.S. Announces Suspension of Flights Between China and the U.S.

On June 3rd, local time, the U.S. Department of transportation officially announced that because China did not allow American airlines to provide services to and from China, the U.S. would suspend allowing Chinese airlines to provide flights to and from the U.S., and relevant regulations would be implemented from June 16th, unless ordered sooner.

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The move will likely impact many airlines; such as Air China, Capital Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, etc.

According to previous flight plans issued by Chinese airlines in June, the order will currently affect Air China's Beijing Los Angeles route, China Southern's Guangzhou Los Angeles route, China Eastern's Shanghai New York route and other routes.

The "failure to allow American airlines to operate passenger routes to and from China," mentioned in the announcement refers to the "five ones" policy implemented by the CAAC since March 29 (one airline and one country can only keep one route, and one flight at most per week). Since the policy required international flight plans to have been released by March 12, and since American airlines had suspended all flights between China and the United States at that time, the routes have not resumed.

In May, American Airlines began planning to resume regular passenger services to and from China. United Airlines and Delta have announced plans to resume regular passenger services on all routes in early June and have applied to CAAC.

According to a previous document issued by the U.S. Department of transportation, in a conference call on May 14, the U.S. Department of transportation raised the issue that American airlines could not resume regular passenger service and exercise all their bilateral rights to CAAC, claiming that CAAC's notice imposed restrictions on American airlines that were inconsistent with relevant agreements between China and the United States. In response, the CAAC informed the U.S. Department of transportation that China is considering canceling the preconditions for the March 12 timetable, but the restrictions on one route to China that operates only once a week will remain.

As for the latest ban announced by the United States, Zhang Baoxin, a civil aviation expert, said in an interview with the global times on the 3rd that in fact, China has begun to cooperate with a number of countries with good epidemic prevention and control situations to open the green channel. Therefore, if the United States wants to resume flights with China as soon as possible, it should take similar measures with these countries and negotiate with China, instead of putting pressure on China.

Source: CCTV news (CCTV reporter Yin Yue), Global Times 今早热搜第一！美国宣布：将暂停往返中美的中国民航航班