Washington accuses Beijing of not letting US airlines resume flights in China

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the US government has accused the Chinese government of making it extremely difficult for its airlines to resume services in China. According to reports, the US authorities have ordered four Chinese air carriers to file flight schedules with the US government. US President Donald Trump is yet to put restrictions on China but has said that talks with Chinese officials have failed to yield any positive results.

Pandemic cause a drastic fall in Flights

According to reports, January 31 onwards, the US government denied entry to most non-US citizens that had been in China in the previous 14 days but did not put any restrictions on Chinese flights. Additionally, major US carriers decided to voluntarily suspend passenger flights to China in the month of February. During the height of the pandemic, the number of weekly scheduled flights fell from 325 in January to 20 in mid-February.

Read: China: Director Of Disease Control Says Criticism Over COVID-19 'understandable'

Read: UK Expects China To Respect Hong Kong's Autonomy After Controversial Legislation

As per reports, the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) in late March said that Chinese airlines could maintain just one weekly passenger flight on one route to any given country and also added that carriers could not fly more planes than the number of flights that were flying on March 12. The problem arises due to the fact that major US airlines had already halted all passenger flights by March 12. This order by the CAAC prevents US carriers from flying to China. According to reports, the CAAC has hinted that they are looking into making amendments but claim that once-weekly service on one route to China will remain.

Read: China Reports No New COVID-19 Cases For First Time Since Virus Outbreak

Read: China Reports 28 New Asymptomatic Coronavirus Cases

The deadly coronavirus has now claimed 338,480 lives worldwide as of May 23. According to the tally by an international news agency, the pandemic has infected at least 5,229,441 people. While the virus first originated in China late last year, China has managed to almost eliminate the virus and is in the process to resuming normal life and easing restrictions. On the other hand, the United States has become a hotbed for the virus and currently has the most virus cases in the world.

(Representative Image)