THE UNITED STATES and the China have reached an agreement to double the ceiling for weekly flights between the two countries, the US Department of Transportation announced on Friday evening (DOWRY).
A few hours after the leak of information, United Airlines said it was taking the opportunity to add flights to and from China by resuming flights to beijing Since san francisco and increasing the number of flights to Shanghai to make it a daily service. Starting September 1, 2023, the DOT will allow 18 scheduled weekly round-trip passenger flights between China and the United States, and starting October 29, that number will increase to 24 weekly services.
Capacity has been severely reduced on flights between the United States and China since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, when Beijing imposed strict rules and sanctions on international airlines in a bid to prevent the importation of COVID-19 cases from overseas. The United States has responded with tit for tat sanctions on Chinese carriers, resulting in a situation where capacity has been reduced to a fraction of pre-pandemic levels.
Even though China eased its pandemic controls and eventually dropped all travel restrictions earlier this year, the frosty diplomatic relationship with theBiden administration on air travel rights took a long time to unfreeze. The DOT justified the slow rebuilding of capacity by stating: “The public interest would be better served overall by a balanced and gradual reopening of the U.S.-China air transportation market, so as to ensure an orderly standardization of services and the overall aviation relationship. between the United States and China, as governed by the agreement”.
“Our overarching goal is an improved environment in which carriers of both parties are able to fully exercise their bilateral rights to maintain a competitive balance and fair and equal opportunity between U.S. and Chinese air carriers,” sued the DOT. The Biden administration says that “negative impact” pandemic travel restrictions in China “continues to call for a phased return to services in the combined services market between the United States and China.”
United Airlines will add capacity to its San Francisco-Shanghai flights by making it a daily service from October 1, while flights from Beijing will resume for the first time since the pandemic began in November.
