Photo: CFP

 
US' latest move to suspend 44 China-bound flights from the US by four Chinese carriers and attempts to shift blame to China's "circuit breaker" measures on prevention of coronavirus is unreasonable and will have a huge impact on the already-tight flight supplies between the two countries, Chinese officials and experts said Friday.

The remarks followed the US Transportation Department's order issued on Friday to block 44 passenger flights by four Chinese airlines - Xiamen Airlines, Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines. 

The suspension will begin on January 30 with Xiamen Airlines' scheduled Los Angeles-to-Xiamen flight and run through March 29 when Air China's Shenzhen-bound flight was scheduled to depart from Los Angeles, according to the order.

The four are currently the only Chinese carriers flying between China and the US. While, United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines are the three US carriers between the two countries.

The blocking of flights marked the latest development on disputes over international flights and rules designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus between the two countries. Previously, China and the US had several rounds of negotiations on resuming of international flights, which were suspended after the outbreak of the COVID-19 and they eventually agreed to allow limited schedules.

The US Transportation Department claimed on Friday that its latest move was made due to Chinese authorities' recent additional "circuit breaker" actions "against Delta, American, and United." 

Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the US, said Friday that the US Friday announcement is "very unreasonable," adding that the policy for international passenger flights entering China has "been applied equally to Chinese and foreign airlines in a fair, open and transparent way," according to a Reuters report.

Liu urged the US side to "stop disrupting and restricting the normal passenger flights by Chinese airlines."

"In response to these actions and in keeping with the US Government's longstanding position with respect to China's use of the 'circuit breaker' measure against US carriers, we are issuing this instant Order," the US Transportation Department said.

Should the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), Chinese aviation regulator, adjust its policies to bring about necessary improved situation for US carriers, the Department is fully prepared to once again revisit the action it announced in the order, the US Transportation Department added.

"Compared with China's flight award and circuit breaker policies that have been implemented since 2020, the US' decision to cut Chinese carriers' services came arbitrarily," Qi Qi, an industry observer, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Qi noted that China's policy is not targeted at a certain country. "As long as the flight triggers the circuit breaker mechanism, we'll take relevant measures. But the US' move is obviously with political purposes and will have huge impact on the already-tight flight supplies between the two countries." 

As the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has placed increasing pressure on inbound flights, the CAAC has moved to cancel more than 100 international routes to China due to the importation of COVID-19 cases since January 1, with more than 200 flights cancelled in total, based on calculations from caixin.com.

According to the CAAC policy updated in April 2021, if the number of passengers testing positive reaches five in a flight, the airline's flights will be suspended for two weeks. The suspension will last for four weeks if the number of passengers testing positive reaches 10.

Previously, Delta Air Lines' flight DL287 from Seattle to Shanghai turned back midway on December 22. The company said that new pandemic-related disinfection requirements at the Shanghai airport were behind the move.

However, the Chinese Embassy in the US said in a statement the next day that claiming the DL287's turnaround was due to China rejecting entry of the flight, as the media quoted some crew members as saying, does not tally with the facts, and that many US airlines had encountered staff shortages.