Exclusive: U.S. accuses China of blocking U.S. flights, demands action

Exclusive: U.S. accuses China of blocking U.S. flights, demands action
Reuters         May 23, 2020
David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government late on Friday accused the Chinese government of making it impossible for U.S. airlines to resume service to China and ordered four Chinese air carriers to file flight schedules with the U.S. government.

The administration of President Donald Trump stopped short of imposing restrictions on Chinese air carriers but said talks with China had failed to produce an agreement.

The U.S. Transportation Department, which is trying to persuade China to allow the resumption of U.S. passenger airline service there, earlier this week briefly delayed a few Chinese charter flights for not complying with notice requirements.

In an order posted on a U.S. government website and seen by Reuters, the department noted Delta Air Lines and United Airlines want to resume flights to China in June, even as Chinese carriers have continued U.S. flights during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The order said Air China, China Eastern Airlines Corp, China Southern Airlines Co, Hainan Airlines Holding Co and their subsidiaries must file schedules and other details of flights by May 27. The department warned it could find Chinese flights "contrary to applicable law or adversely affect the public interest."

United declined to comment. The other U.S. and Chinese carriers, the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) and China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The department said in a statement it has "protested this situation to the Chinese authorities, repeatedly objecting to China’s failure to let U.S. carriers fully exercise their rights and to the denial to U.S. carriers of their right to compete on a fair and equal basis with Chinese carriers" and called the situation "critical."

On Jan. 31, the U.S. government barred from entry most non-U.S. citizens who had been in China within the previous 14 days but did not impose any restrictions on Chinese flights. Major U.S. carriers voluntarily decided to halt all passenger flights to China in February.

Delta and United are flying cargo flights to China. Delta had requested approval for a daily flight to Shanghai Pudong airport from Detroit and Seattle, while United had asked to fly daily to Shanghai Pudong from San Francisco and Newark airport near New York and between San Francisco and Beijing.

The number of weekly scheduled combination flights operated between the two countries by U.S and Chinese carriers fell from 325 in January to 20, by just the four Chinese carriers, in mid-February, before the carriers increased them to 34 in mid-March, the U.S. order said.

The CAAC in late March said Chinese airlines could maintain just one weekly passenger flight on one route to any given country and that carriers could fly no more than the number of flights they were flying on March 12, according to the U.S. order.

But because U.S. passenger airlines had stopped all flights by March 12, the CAAC notice "effectively precludes U.S. carriers from reinstating scheduled passenger flights to China," the department said.

CAAC told the U.S. government during a May 14 call that China is considering removing the March 12 schedule pre-condition but the "restriction to once-weekly service on one route to China would remain in place," the order said.

Earlier on Friday, the U.S. Commerce Department added 33 Chinese companies and institutions to an economic blacklist for alleged human rights violations and to address U.S. national security concerns involving weapons of mass destruction and other military activities.


(Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Brenda Goh, Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo in Beijing and Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; Editing by William Mallard)

微博上某人的评论：

麦田  
5-23 13:17come from 微博 weibo.com

看了路透社的报道，终于搞清了和“五个一”有关的另外一个问题，也就是外交部答记者问里面说了，美国没批中国几个航班。那为什么美国交通部，没有立刻批准中国最近的几架次航班。我大致介绍一下。其中是非曲直，大家判断一下：

1、中美通航是有对等协议的，简单的说就是中国飞机飞美国多少班次，要对等允许美国飞机飞中国同样多的班次。当然，美国公司或中国公司飞不飞另说，但这个“配额”是要对等的。这个中美通航协议，在疫情之前执行得很好，没啥问题，中美之间在1月的时候，双方每周共有325架次

2，疫情爆发后，美国在1月31日限制中国人入境。在这种情况下，美国航空公司觉得经济上不合算，就暂时关闭了飞中国的航线。但这是他们的自由选择，不影响配额，所以中国航空公司还是可以继续飞美国。这样2月开始，中国飞美国的航班锐减到每周20架次，而且都是中国航空公司的。注意，美国限制的是入境，并没有限制航班。

3，这个情况持续到3月，飞美国的航班，依旧只有中国公司的。但班次增加到每周34架次。然后3月份，中国民航出台了“五个一”政策。这个政策还有一个关键细节，业外人士一般都没注意，这个细节是中国民航规定，除了“五个一”以外：“以民航局3月12日官网发布的“国际航班信息发布（第5期）”为基准，每家航空公司在每条航线上的航班量只减不增”

4，现在中国疫情缓和，美国航空公司看见有利可图，准备恢复航线，然后发现按照“五个一”虽然航线少，但至少可以飞；但按照“五个一”的这个“3.12”条件，哈哈，美国航空公司在3月是0班次啊，所以现在也得0班次

5，中国民航管理部门，太智慧了！

6，美国人一看这没法搞啊。美国就说这样吧，你们飞美国的航线需要提前一个月报备审批。所以中国飞美国的几个班次，也就延误了。

7，最新进展是双方正在谈判，可能很快会取消“3.12”条件，但还是保留“五个一”政策。如果是这样，对留学生归国没有本质改变，就是多了几个架次航班，还是杯水车薪。


路透社原文： https://www.reuters.com/article/ ... ction-idUSKBN22Z04W