China enters the country, allowing US airlines to return
China will relax its ban on
foreign airlines from June 8, the day after the United States issued an order
to prevent Chinese airlines from carrying passengers to the United States.
Foreign airlines can
operate an international commercial passenger flight to China every week,
starting from Monday 8-6, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said
Thursday 4-6. The notice did not name any countries.
China has allowed a number
of flights from foreign airlines under the Five One policy to be introduced in
March, limiting international airlines to just one flight per week.
Airlines are not allowed to
operate more flights than March 12, which means that U.S. carriers are
eliminated because they suspended passenger services to and from China because
of earlier coronavirus case.
The U.S. Department of
Transportation said last month that China had violated a bilateral agreement
for failing to meet Delta Air Lines Inc.'s request and United Airlines
Holdings Inc. to reopen the flight.
Delta initially sought to
restart services in China on June 1, but was unable to because the Chinese
authorities did not approve the application. Meanwhile, four Chinese
airlines still maintain flights to and from US airports.
On Tuesday, the United
States announced that it would stop the passenger services of Chinese airlines
from June 16, although President Donald Trump may impose the ban sooner if he
chooses.
A Bloomberg Intelligence
analyst, James Teo, said the U.S. ban on flights would not do much damage to
China, as only 6.5% of the revenue of the Chinese non-Chinese carrier in 2019
from North America routes.
China Eastern and China
Southern also get most of their revenue from the domestic market, and even more
after international routes are limited by the virus.
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