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From the week of Jan. 24, the aviation regulator said, it would
suspend two United Airlines flights from San Francisco to Shanghai,
after seven passengers tested positive on a recent flight.
It will also suspend four China Southern Airlines flights from Los
Angeles to Guangzhou from the week of Jan. 31, a move that would
also affect return flights in February.
Before the latest cancellations, three U.S. airlines and four
Chinese carriers were operating about 20 flights a week between the
countries, well below the figure of more than 100 per week before
the pandemic.
China has been suspending routes with other countries as well. On
Wednesday it suspended a total of six flights from France and
Canada.
But the number of U.S. flights being scrapped has surged since
December, as infections caused by the highly contagious Omicron
variant soar to record highs in the United States.
Beijing and Washington have sparred over air services since the
start of the pandemic. In August, the U.S. Department of
Transportation limited four flights from Chinese carriers to 40%
passenger capacity for four weeks after Beijing imposed identical
limits on four United Airlines flights.
China has all but shut its borders to travellers, cutting total
international flights to just 200 a week, or 2% of pre-pandemic
levels, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in
September.
What is effectively a zero-COVID-19 policy has curbed any wide
spread in China, where it first emerged two years ago, but has also
made the country vulnerable to further economic disruptions as it
scrambles to limit local flare-ups, analysts say.
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Last week, Hong Kong, a major
transport hub, announced a two-week ban on
incoming flights from eight countries, including
Britain and the United States.
Travellers, including overseas Chinese trying to get home, have had
to scramble for expensive tickets, if they can find them at all.
On Wednesday, a search of China's popular Trip.com, showed almost no
direct flights from the United States to China were available for
the rest of January.
For February, Delta's weekly Seattle-Shanghai flight on Tuesdays was
selling for about 40,000 yuan ($6,285).
"Now going back to China is like a Mission Impossible. More and more
flights are being suspended," an annoyed Chinese user of social
media platform Weibo posted on Tuesday.
"Piss off, Omicron. I haven't been back home for two years now."
($1=6.3647 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Stella Qiu and Tony Munroe; Editing by Christopher
Cushing and Clarence Fernandez)
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