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China said on Monday it opposes any possible interference or restrictions by the U.S. on passenger flights operated by Chinese airlines, responding to a report that the U.S. Transportation Department has demanded Chinese carriers submit their schedules and other flight details by May 27.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that flight restrictions imposed by Beijing treated all airlines equally and were due to the efforts to curb COVID-19-related risks.
"On March 26, China issued a notice on continuing to reduce the number of international passenger flights during the epidemic prevention and control period. This is a special arrangement for the operation of international passenger flights in accordance with relevant regulations, under the special circumstance of the outbreak. The measure refers to measures of multiple countries and treats all countries in the world equally, openly, fairly and transparently," Zhao said.
The U.S. Transportation Department on Friday accused China had violated a bilateral agreement allowing airline services between the two countries by failing to respond to requests by Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Airlines Holdings Inc.
"China has, over the objections of the U.S. government, impaired the operating rights of U.S. carriers," U.S. Department of Transportation Assistant Secretary Joel Szabat wrote to Chinese airlines in a public letter.
Szabat ordered some Chinese airlines including Air China, China Eastern Airlines Corp., China Southern Airlines Co., Hainan Airlines Holding Co. and their subsidiaries to file their U.S. flight schedules, including take-off time, aircraft type, codeshare by May 27 to evaluate if the airlines are "contrary to applicable law or adversely affect the public interest."
The move by the U.S. was seen as a retaliation/counter measure to China's delay to allow foreign airlines to resume service as anti-pandemic measure.
From March 29, based on the circular of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), all Chinese airlines have been allowed to operate only one flight to each country per week, while foreign aviation companies have kept only one air route to China with no more than one flight every week for each of the air routes to China.
From March 29 to April 4, in the first week of the implementation of the policy, China's international flight volume was reduced by 85.3 percent from the previous week to 108 percent, which was only equivalent to 1.2 percent before the outbreak. The policy was implemented through April and June.
With the epidemic in China basically under control, many foreign airlines are preparing to resume international routes to China, such as Lufthansa, Finnair and the three major U.S. airlines mentioned above.
According to Reuters, Delta and United, which now are flying cargo flights to China under the CAAC permission to transport cargo by passenger flights, had requested approval to resume flights to China in June, namely Delta's daily flight to Shanghai Pudong airport from Detroit and Seattle, and United's daily flight to Shanghai Pudong from San Francisco and Newark airport near New York and between San Francisco and Beijing.
(Cover via VCG)
