Passengers line up to check in at Liuji Airport in Xiangyang City, central China's Hubei Province, March 29, 2020. Domestic passenger flights resumed operations in Hubei Province except in the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

Chartered flights planned by Chinese airlines to repatriate Chinese students from the US are postponed as the US has not approved their applications, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday during a daily press briefing.

"China hopes that the US side can complete relevant procedures for the chartered flights to pick up Chinese students abroad as soon as possible and in a humanitarian spirit," said Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry.

Zhao said that some Chinese students overseas were inconvenienced by the flight delays, and that the Embassy and Consulates General of China in the US have provided settlement assistance.

On Monday, the Consulate General of China in Houston said that Air China's chartered flight CA996, which was scheduled to depart at 1:10 pm on Tuesday from Houston for North China's Tianjin Municipality, is likely to be delayed as its flight plan has not yet been approved by the US government.

Another provisional Air China flight, CA566 from New York to Southwest China's Chongqing scheduled to depart on May 17 was also delayed for the same reason, according to the Consulate General of China in New York.

According to China's Houston Consulate, China had arranged eight chartered flights to bring more than 1,500 primary and secondary school students back to China from April 11 to May 2.

The first group of 180 Chinese minors, aged between 12 and 16, arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport from San Francisco in the US on April 12. They traveled on a chartered flight, assisted by China's Foreign Ministry.

Global Times