has been suspended by the Civil Aviation Administration of China because American Airlines flights recently triggered the circuit breaker command . The United States has decided to implement so-called "reciprocal" measures on Chinese airlines' flights. On August 25, local time, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued an announcement stating that it would suspend 26 flights from the United States to China by four Chinese airlines starting in September.
According to Reuters 26 report, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s decision will be implemented from September 5 and last until September 28. It will affect Xiamen Airlines , Air China , China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Among the four airline companies, the suspended flights include 19 flights from Los Angeles and 7 flights from New York.
The U.S. Department of Transportation stated that on August 7, a single inbound flight of an airline with five confirmed passengers will be suspended for one week when the proportion of confirmed passengers reaches 4% of the number of incoming passengers on the flight; when the proportion of confirmed passengers When the number of incoming passengers on the flight reaches 8%, the flight will be suspended for two weeks. The U.S. government has repeatedly raised objections to the Chinese government on this matter.
According to Reuters, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the United States, said that the United States’ unreasonable suspension of Chinese airline flights was “extremely irresponsible.” China's flight circuit breaker mechanism is fair and transparent, applies to both Chinese and foreign airlines, and is in line with bilateral air transport agreements.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the United States has repeatedly taken "retaliatory" measures against Chinese flights on the grounds of the flight circuit breaker mechanism. In August 2021, the U.S. Department of Transportation limited passenger capacity on four Chinese airline flights to less than 40% for four weeks in response to the Civil Aviation Administration of China suspending four United Airlines flights. In January this year, the U.S. Department of Transportation suspended 44 flights from the United States to China by Chinese airlines from January 30 to March 29, in response to the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s previous suspension of 44 flights by U.S. airlines. Decide.
Chinese civil aviation expert Qi Qi said in an interview with a reporter from " Global Times " on the 26th that the US Department of Transportation's move is actually using flight operations as an excuse to put pressure on China in order to obtain certain "overlord privileges." China's circuit breaker measures are not targeted at any one country, but are applied equally to prevent and control the epidemic. The Civil Aviation Administration of China optimized and adjusted the circuit breaker measures for international scheduled passenger flights on August 7, which has helped the resumption of international flights. The US flight triggering the circuit breaker order should start to find the reason based on its own epidemic prevention policy, rather than unreasonably canceling Chinese flights. .
As of August 25, local time, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States has exceeded 94 million. According to the British " Guardian " report, an average of about 400 people die from COVID-19 every day in the United States. Still, mask orders and social distancing rules across the U.S. are not being strictly enforced. The Guardian quoted Eghavan Salles, a clinical associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, as saying that the epidemic has claimed the lives of more than 1 million Americans. However, the government not only “failed to face the facts and take all measures to stop losses, but instead Act like it never happened." ▲
our reporter Pan Xiaotong
