Stella Qiu & David Shepardson

WASHINGTON/BEIJING – China ordered cancellations of over two dozen flights scheduled from America in the past weeks. This was after many passengers arrived in China and tested positive for COVID-19.

China’s aviation regulator has ordered cancellations for eight scheduled U.S. passenger airlines flights from Shanghai. They are four operated by United Airlines and two each of Delta Air Lines (NYSE 🙂 and American Airlines.

Delta stated that it cancelled Detroit-Shanghai flights on Friday, Jan. 14, due to Chinese rules requiring all carriers whose passengers are positive for COVID-19 to cancel certain inbound flights to China.

Following positive COVID-19 testing, China Southern Airlines Co. had eight of its flights canceled by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

America is experiencing a spike in Omicron variant infections. On Monday, there were 132 646 COVID-infected patients in the United States. This surpasses the January 2021 record of 132 551 people. Over the last 10 Days, the average number of new cases per seven days has increased by two-thirds to 704,000

United said it had been forced to cancel flights from San Francisco to Shanghai scheduled for Jan. 15, 19, 22 and 26. Chicago-based United flies to Shanghai from San Francisco four times a week.

Late Monday, the U.S. Transportation Department did not respond to our request.

U.S.-CHINA AERIAL SERVICES

China and the United States are now sparring over the provision of air services since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Four flights by Chinese airlines were restricted to 40 percent passenger capacity in August. This was four weeks after Beijing had placed similar restrictions on four United Airlines flights.

China informed United that it had imposed restrictions on certain flights in August after five people who traveled from San Francisco, California to Shanghai were found positive for COVID-19.

The USDOT claimed that China’s travel policy places undue responsibility on airlines with regard to travellers who are positive for COVID-19 following their arrival in China in August.

According to the department, carriers do not have the ability to verify positive results of tests allegedly conducted by Chinese authorities.

Although the U.S. and China air agreements have been in place for many years, only about a third of the current flights are being operated.

Trump, the former president of the United States, banned nearly all foreign citizens from visiting the United States after they had visited China in the past 14 days.

The Chinese travel ban was lifted by President Joe Biden on November 1st.