China’s aviation regulator backs off from a two-month row with US over American carriers’ access to lucrative US-China routes

Starting on June 8, all 95 foreign carriers that were excluded from a March 26 restriction on inbound international flights can fly once a week to a Chinese city capable of handling overseas arrivals, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). That previous rule limited all Chinese and global carriers to one weekly outbound and inbound flight at 75 per cent capacity, a hurdle erected to staunch imported cases of the Covid-19 disease, just as the global epicentre of the pandemic was starting to shift from China to Europe and North America.

The CAAC’s latest concession follows an overnight restriction imposed by the US Department of Transportation, where Chinese carriers would be allowed to operate one flight to the US for each service that China’s regulator grants to American airlines, starting from June 16.

The tit-for-tat retaliation underscores the fight for market share in one of the most lucrative routes of what remains in global aviation, in an industry that needs an estimated US$200 billion in aid to pull through its worst slump in history, according to a March 18 forecast by the International Air Travel Association (IATA), the industry guild. US airlines, suffering from the worst blow to their businesses, have lobbied to return to the sky as soon as June 1.

“There are so many Chinese [residents who] want to return to China, and the air fares are so expensive,” said Lei Zheng, founder of Institute for Aviation Research. “American airlines should have lobbied the US government [earlier] to resume flights to China.”