US cancels Chinese flights in retaliation for CAAC calls

The US Department of Transportation has cancelled 44 inbound flights to the United States due to be operated by Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Xiamen Airlines between January 30 and March 28, 2022, in retaliation for Chinese strict zero-COVID policies affecting US carriers.

“We find that the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s (CAAC) recent actions impairing the operations of Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, and United Airlines are adverse to the public interest and warrant proportionate remedial action by the Department. CAAC’s unilateral actions against the named US carriers are inconsistent with the provisions of the [US-China Civil Air Transport] Agreement and are premised on circumstances wholly outside of the carriers’ control,” the DOT said.

The regulator ordered the cancellation of the following flights:

five Shenzhen-Los Angeles Int’l flights operated by Air China,
four Tianjin-Los Angeles flights operated by Air China,
sixteen Shanghai Pudong-New York JFK flights operated by China Eastern,
six Guangzhou-Los Angeles flights operated by China Southern, and
thirteen Xiamen-Los Angeles flights operated by Xiamen Airlines.
The DOT further stipulated that should any of these routes be cancelled by the CAAC, it would then select other flights to maintain the total number of services cancelled at 44.

China’s “circuit breaker” policy, which is a part of its broader zero-COVID approach, imposes sanctions on carriers whenever more than five passengers from the same inbound flight test positive for the disease within seven days of their arrival in China. According to the rules, carriers should be given a four-week notice period and can then choose to either suspend the route to China for two weeks or limit the load factor to 40% for four weeks.

However, the DOT alleges that since December 31, 2021, the CAAC has imposed sanctions affecting 44 flights operated by American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines without the four-week notice period. The airlines were also not given the choice of limiting the load factor but simply told to cancel their respective services.

The DOT underlined that not only were these “circuit breaker” calls in breach of China’s own policy, but the policy itself was unjust.

“The United States Government (USG) has repeatedly raised its objections with the Government of China over the “circuit breaker” measure and its inconsistency with the provisions of the Agreement. In particular, the USG has conveyed its view that the “circuit breaker” measure places undue culpability on carriers with respect to travellers who, despite having presented negative test results prior to boarding, test positive for COVID-19 up to seven days after their arrival in China,” the administration said.

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the US, Liu Pengyu, called the DOT decision “very unreasonable” and stressed that the CAAC was applying the same rules to all inbound flights, including those operated by Chinese airlines.

“We urge the US side to stop disrupting and restricting normal passenger flights,” he said.