United States bans Chinese passenger airlines effective mid-June

In an order issued on Wednesday, the United States Department of Transportation announced it would be banning all Chinese passenger airlines from operating to the United States effective 16 June.

An Air China Boeing 747-8. Photo by Andrew Pries | AeroNewsX

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s order attacked the Civil Aviation Administration of China for not having approved United Airlines’ & Delta Air Lines’ requests to resume flights to the country.⁣ “Should the CAAC adjust its policies to bring about the necessary improved situation for U.S. carriers, the Department is fully prepared to revisit the action it has announced in this order.”⁣⁣⁣

However, the order also states that should the President of the United States, Donald Trump, give the go ahead, the ban could enter into effect immediately.

Delta Air Lines was looking to relaunch services connecting Detroit and Seattle with Shanghai with stopovers in Seoul. Meanwhile, United Airlines applied to resume services from San Francisco to Beijing and Shanghai, as well as the latter with Newark.

The order affects the existing schedules for flights filed by Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines however this ban extends to any Chinese passenger airline. The order cites the reasoning behind the move as to restore 'a competitive balance and fair and equal opportunity among U.S. and Chinese air carriers in the scheduled passenger service marketplace'.