The United States Department of Transport (DOT) has agreed to allow Chinese airlines to increase the number of weekly flights to the US to 50 starting March 31, 2024, up from the current 35.
According to a Reuters report quoting the DOT, the approval is a “significant step forward in further normalization of the US-China market in anticipation of the Summer 2024 traffic season.”
Before COVID-19 restrictions were imposed in early 2020, more than 150 weekly round-trip passenger flights were permitted between the US and China.
US and Chinese carriers could each fly only 12 weekly round-trip passenger flights between the two countries until August 2023.
In August 2023, the DOT announced it would increase the number of Chinese passenger flights allowed to enter the US to 18 weekly round-trips from September 1, 2024, and this would be further increased to 24 per week starting October 2024.
Industry trade organization Airlines for America, which represents the three biggest international US carriers operating 31 weekly flights to China, expressed its support of the government’s decision to further open its doors to China.
