The US Department of Transportation has backtracked on a previous order which banned Chinese carriers from flying to the US. In an order published June 5, the Department of Transportation said that it will permit Chinese carriers "to operate... a total of two weekly round-trip scheduled passenger flights to and from the United States". Additionally, the order stated that these two flights would be operated "by one or two of the Chinese carriers currently operating scheduled combination service to the United States". Each of the four Chinese carriers currently operates 1 weekly service each, which will now change. Only one or two of these carriers will be allowed to operate.
This feud between the United States and China began when China said they would not allow Delta and American to operate during the month of June, saying that they had based flight permissions off of airline activity as of March 12. The United States had already suspended flights to China at this time. With President Trump's approval, the Department of Transportation retaliated, issuing an order preventing Chinese carriers from operating to the US past June 16. The CAAC(Civil Aviation Administration of China) then permitted one US flight per airline per week, and now the US is responding in kind.
These restrictions come as tensions between the United States and China are escalating, partially due to China's seizure of Hong Kong. Because of this, the President may try to use his power over Chinese airlines to negotiate with China, although that is pure speculation.
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