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Law360 (June 4, 2020, 5:41 PM EDT ) China will relax flight restrictions on foreign airlines starting Monday after the Trump administration vowed to bar China-based airlines from flying to the U.S. in retaliation for China impeding U.S. airlines' efforts to restart flights that were paused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said Thursday that it will allow foreign airlines to operate one commercial passenger flight a week to one Chinese destination starting June 8. Those international flights will be limited to 37 cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan, where the first reported cases of COVID-19 had emerged.
The CAAC's announcement clears a path for foreign airlines, which had suspended most of their scheduled flights to China by early March, to resume limited flights to China as economies begin reopening after a monthslong shutdown triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak.
China's announcement did not specifically mention any U.S. airlines or the U.S. Department of Transportation's Wednesday order vowing to suspend all passenger flights from China-based airlines beginning June 16.
The DOT said Beijing flouted an air transport agreement between the two countries by denying U.S. carriers a "fair and equal opportunity to compete" in the market. The Wednesday action was a response to China's refusal to grant Delta Air Lines and United Airlines' recent requests to restart scheduled passenger flights from the U.S. to China this month.
Under a March order, China had limited domestic and foreign airlines to just one passenger flight a week to a single Chinese destination based on those air carriers' China flight schedules and capacity levels as of March 12. But because U.S. airlines had already eliminated or suspended their China-bound flights before March 12 due to the pandemic, they were left out of the loop.
The DOT then stepped in, criticizing China for working off an arbitrary "baseline" date of March 12 to justify its refusal to let Delta and United restore their China capacity to levels before government travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders kicked in. As it stood, no U.S. airline could operate passenger flights to China, but four China-based airlines were still flying to U.S. destinations, the DOT said. That marked an unfair imbalance in air passenger service levels between U.S. versus China-based carriers, according to the DOT.
Representatives for the DOT did not immediately respond to Law360's request for comment Thursday.
"Our overriding goal is not the perpetuation of this situation, but rather an improved environment wherein the carriers of both parties will be able to exercise fully their bilateral rights," the DOT said in Wednesday's order. "Should the CAAC adjust its policies to bring about the necessary improved situation for U.S. carriers, the department is fully prepared to revisit the action it has announced in this order."
--Editing by Daniel King.
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