US allows increase in China-US flights to boost travel
A China Eastern Boeing 777 sits at the gate at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Los Angeles, California, on July 23, 2023.
Starting March 31, Chinese airlines will be permitted to increase their weekly direct round-trip passenger flights between China and the US from the current 35 to 50, The US Department of Transportation announced on Monday.
This move is expected to bring the China-US air route back to approximately one-third of its pre-2020 capacity.
The US Department of Transportation stated that this approval comes as an important step toward the further normalization of the China-US market, coinciding with the arrival of the summer travel season in 2024.
Prior to 2020, both Chinese and US airlines operated over 150 weekly round-trip passenger flights. However, due to the impact of the pandemic, the frequency of flights on the China-US route sharply decreased. As of August 2023, Chinese airlines were operating only 12 flights per week on this route.
