US may run out of flights to China before Winter Olympics

People who try to fly from U.S to the China may soon be faced with an unthinkable scenario: from next week, there will likely be no commercial flights to the country as Beijing tries to stave off coronavirus infections ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

As of January 19 and continuing for at least two weeks, all flights from the United States to China have been canceled or are likely to be suspended due to Chinese aviation regulations, according to research by the CNN Business about government announcements and published flight schedules.

On Friday (14), only two flights still seemed eligible to operate during this period, one with the United Airlines.

As Winter Olympics Beijing starts on February 4, and attendees are traveling on special flights restricted to people with Olympic credentials as part of a strict bubble authorities are implementing around the event.

Since June, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has applied the so-called “circuit breaker” rule to international flights.

This rule means that a flight is automatically suspended for two weeks if five or more passengers test positive for Covid-19 upon landing in China. If 10 or more passengers test positive, the suspension period increases.

China defended its regulations as “an important step towards reducing the risk of cross-border spread in the pandemic”.

“The measures, which are open and fair, apply equally to Chinese and foreign airlines,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in August.

“For airlines that do not meet the conditions linked to the policy, China has never applied relevant measures on them.”

From December 24 to January 12, more than a third of the 9,356 international flights scheduled to depart for China – already a fraction of pre-pandemic levels – were cancelled, according to data from Umetrip, an app developed by the Chinese state-owned aviation industry.

During that time, an increasing number of passengers on flights from the United States – operated by US and Chinese airlines – tested positive on arrival in China, triggering a wave of cancellations just before the Olympics and Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in China. China.

Three US airlines – United, Delta e American Airlines — operate 10 flights a week to Shanghai, China’s largest city, where a steady rise in Covid-19 cases among international arrivals has put local authorities under increasing pressure to tighten containment measures.

The city on Thursday reported five new locally transmitted cases, all linked to a resident who had recently returned from the United States.

“U.S. airlines are concerned about the implications of a disruption and continue to assess the impact on operations,” Airlines for America, a Washington-based trade group representing major U.S. carriers, said in a statement Thursday. market.

“We are in communication with the US and Chinese governments to identify a way forward that minimizes the impact to travelers.”

THE CNN Business requested comments from the US Department of Transportation, which has the authority to suspend the eight weekly US-bound flights operated by four Chinese airlines.

China largely sealed off its borders in March 2020 and continued to adhere to its strict “Covid zero” policy.

Flights to and from China – the world’s second-largest air travel market after the United States – have been drastically reduced, even as international travel has started to pick up in other parts of the globe.

Last month, a Delta flight from Seattle to Shanghai took a turn in the air due to a change in cleaning procedures at the Chinese airport that “has significantly increased time on the ground and is not operationally feasible,” according to the airline.

Chinese authorities disputed the claim, urging the operator to “protect the legitimate rights of customers”.