China to ease ban on foreign airlines after US retaliates

Bloomberg

China will ease its ban on foreign airlines starting from June 8, changing course a day after the Trump administration demanded the country reopen to US airlines or face curbs on its own carriers flying passengers to America.
Foreign airlines excluded from an earlier pact will be able to operate one commercial passenger flight to China a week, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CACC) said. It didn’t name any countries or carriers, but the move opens up a chance for US airlines to return for the first time in four months.
While the timing may have been coincidental, it appeared as a concession from China just as tensions between the superpowers intensify. The nations are locked in a tussle that began over trade but escalated to include Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus and its treatment of Hong Kong. The friction puts the phase one trade deal signed on January 15 in jeopardy, along with billions of dollars in Boeing Co aircraft sales.
“China and the US should use this opportunity to restore high-level and diplomatic communications as soon as possible,” said Zhu Feng, director of the Institute of International Studies at Nanjing University. “Both sides should cut short the hawkish and emotional rhetoric, as they’re against the business interests of both.”
Flights can land in 37 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan, where Covid-19 first emerged. That list could change in the future, CAAC said.
If no passengers on a particular route test positive for coronavirus for three consecutive weeks, the operating airline can increase services to twice a week, CAAC said. However, a route would be suspended for a week if five passengers on the same flight tested positive. If 10 test positive, the route will be halted for four weeks.
China already allowed flights from some foreign airlines under a policy introduced in March that limited them to one trip a week and didn’t allow them to operate more services than they had scheduled on March 12.
US carriers missed out because they’d suspended passenger services to and from China because of the coronavirus pandemic, which devastated the global aviation industry as countries imposed travel restrictions and demand disappeared.
Washington’s order would stop passenger services by Chinese airlines starting from June 16, though President Donald Trump could impose the ban sooner if he chooses. The order stops short of an outright ban, allowing Chinese carriers to operate one flight to the US for each flight that China grants to American carriers.