China and the US boost passenger airline flights

WASHINGTON (Reuters), May 3, 2017 – On Wednesday, the U.S. Transportation Department approved Chinese airlines’ request to increase their U.S. round-trip passenger flights to 12 per week. This is equal to the number of flights that Chinese aviation authorities allow U.S. carriers.

USDOT has announced that three U.S. airlines currently offering scheduled passenger service between the U.S. and China — American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines — have been approved to offer four round-trip weekly flights between the United States of America and China.

The order will bring the total number of round-trip flights for each country down to 12, but this is only a fraction of what was flown before restrictions were imposed in early 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic. (Reporting David Shepardson, Editing Sandra Maler.)