Status: 08/19/2021 2:32 p.m.
The US Department of Transportation is restricting the capacity of passenger flights from China. Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, China and the USA have been arguing about flight rights between the countries.
The US is limiting the number of passengers on flights from China as a result of a dispute over sanctions against US airlines. Over a period of four weeks, the capacity of four Chinese airlines will be limited to 40 percent of the possible passenger volume on each flight, said the US Department of Transportation. Flights from Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines are affected.
The US reaction comes at a time when many Chinese students from China are planning to travel back to the US to continue their classes.
Return carriage from the USA
The Beijing government imposed a similar reduction on four United Airlines Wednesday flights on Aug. 6, after five passengers traveling from San Francisco to Shanghai tested positive for Covid-19 on July 21. The limitation started on August 11th. China is currently struggling with a renewed outbreak of the corona pandemic and is taking strict measures against the spread of the virus.
The US government justifies its actions with the fact that China’s actions violate the air transport agreement between the two countries. It gave “airlines an unreasonable responsibility for travelers who test positive for Covid-19 after arriving in China.”
United Airlines is delighted
The airlines have “no means to independently verify the positive test results claimed by the Chinese authorities,” argues the government. In addition, there is no way to determine where or when a traveler was infected.
United Airlines announced that it was “pleased with this measure by the Department of Transportation, which aims to ensure fairness in this important market”. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not initially receive any response.
The issue of aviation rights has been causing a dispute between China and the USA practically since the beginning of the corona pandemic. There has long been an agreement between the two countries that allows them to fly to destinations in China and the USA more than 100 times a week. However, only a fraction of the flights are currently taking place due to the pandemic.
Far-reaching entry bans have been in place in the USA since 2020. Accordingly, people who do not live in the USA and have been in China, the European Schengen area, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa and India in the previous 14 days are not allowed to enter the United States. Exceptions are only made in a few cases.