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 The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has mandated the
cancellations of 22 total scheduled U.S. passenger airline flights
for Shanghai under its COVID-19 pandemic rules: 10 by Delta Air
Lines, six from United Airlines and six American Airlines.
Delta said it canceled Detroit to Shanghai flights last Friday and
for Jan. 14 due to the Chinese rule requiring "all affected
carriers", whose passengers test positive for COVID-19, "to cancel
inbound service on certain China flights."
The CAAC said on Tuesday that it would cancel another two Delta
flights from Detroit to Shanghai and another six Delta flights from
Seattle to Shanghai from next week - bringing total cancellations to
10 for the airline.
The regulator has also canceled 42 other U.S. bound flights operated
by Chinese carriers after positive COVID-19 tests.
Most of these canceled flights are operated by China's three biggest
airlines, according to a Reuters tally of flight suspensions for the
new year.
The United States is facing a surge in infections
https://www.reuters.com/business/
healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-reports-least-11-mln-covid-cases-day-shattering-global-record-2022-01-11
caused by the highly contagious Omicron variant and on Monday had
132,646 people hospitalized with COVID, surpassing the record of
132,051 set in January 2021. The seven-day average for new cases has
doubled in the last 10 days to 704,000.
United said it had been forced to cancel flights from San Francisco
to Shanghai scheduled for Jan. 15, 19, 22 and 26. The Chicago-based
carrier flies from San Francisco to Shanghai four times weekly.
The U.S. Transportation Department (USDOT) did not immediately
comment late Monday.
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 U.S.-CHINA AIR SERVICES
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, China and the
United States have sparred over air services.
In August, USDOT limited four flights from
Chinese carriers to 40% passenger capacity for
four weeks after Beijing imposed identical
limits on four United Airlines flights.
China told United in August it was imposing curbs on some flights
after it alleged five passengers who traveled from San Francisco to
Shanghai tested positive for COVID-19 on July 21.
USDOT said in August that China's policy "places undue culpability
on carriers with respect to travelers that test positive for
COVID-19 after their arrival in China."
The department said carriers "have no means to independently verify
positive test results alleged by Chinese authorities."
A long-standing U.S.-China air agreement allows the countries to
operate over 100 weekly flights between the two nations but only a
fraction of those are currently operating.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump in January 2020 barred nearly all
non-U.S. citizens who had been in China within the last 14 days from
traveling to the United States.
President Joe Biden in November lifted the Chinese travel
restrictions for fully vaccinated foreign air travelers.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Stella Qiu in
Beijing; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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