Four Chinese airlines apply for newly added routes after U.S. allows more flights from China

Four Chinese airlines are applying for newly added routes from China to the U.S., after the U.S. decided last week to allow Chinese carriers to increase flights to the U.S.

At present, China Eastern Airlines, Air China, Xiamen Airlines and China Southern Airlines have all submitted applications for new flights, but Hainan Airlines, Capital Airlines and Sichuan Airlines have not yet applied, according to ccaonline.cn on Tuesday.

China Eastern Airlines applied for a route between Shanghai Pudong and Los Angeles from May 20 to October 28, and Air China applied for the route between Beijing and New York from May 27 to October 28.

Xiamen Airlines applied for the route between Xiamen and Los Angeles from May 30 to October 28. And China Southern Airlines hopes to increase the flight frequency to twice per week from Guangzhou to Los Angeles from May 27 to October 28.

On May 3, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued an order allowing Chinese airlines to operate 12 round-trip flights between China and the U.S. every week, up from the current eight, for a total of 24 flights between China and the U.S. every week.

Due to the impact of the epidemic, flights between China and the U.S. were hugely reduced over the past three years. United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines successively suspended the operation of China-U.S. routes at the end of January 2020.

Under the restrictions of the Civil Aviation Administration of China's "five-one" policy, in which every foreign airline was allowed to maintain only one air route to China and operate no more than one flight a week, domestic airlines only retained a small number of flights between China and the U.S.

During and after the pandemic, China and the U.S. have been making policy adjustments for the resumption of flights. The number of flights between China and the U.S. was expanded from four flights per week to eight flights per week after June 16, 2020, and in mid-August the number of flights between China and the U.S. rose to 16 per week, which means each country's carriers flew eight round-trip flights each week.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China lifted the outbound travel restrictions from January 8, 2023, bringing a fast increase in the number of international flights to Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea and Australia, but there has not yet been a big jump for the routes between China and the U.S.