China and the US squabble over flights, Australia and new Zealand plan to reconnect and Britain puts a two week quarantine on all travellers. It’s all part of the New Normal.
Chinese regulators said Thursday more foreign airlines will be allowed to fly to China as anti-coronavirus controls ease but it was unclear whether the change will defuse a fresh conflict with the Trump administration over air travel.
The announcement came after Washington said Wednesday it would bar four Chinese airlines from the United States because Beijing was failing to allow United Airlines and Delta Air Lines to resume flights to China.
Airlines that were flying to China when controls were imposed in March were allowed to keep making one flight per week. United and Delta had suspended their flights before that and asked permission to resume.
Airlines that aren’t on the March list can make one flight per week starting Monday, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on its website. The announcement appeared to open the door to United and Delta but CAAC gave no indication which carriers were affected.
Asked what it heard from Chinese regulators about its status, United said in a statement, “We look forward to resuming passenger service between the United States and China when the regulatory environment allows us to do so.”
The dispute adds to US-Chinese strains over trade, technology, Taiwan, human rights and the status of Hong Kong.
All foreign carriers authorized to fly to China will be allowed to increase to two flights per week if they go three weeks with no passengers testing positive for the virus, CAAC said. It said a route will be suspended for one week if the number of passengers who test positive reaches five.
Ahead of the Chinese announcement, the US Transportation Department accused Beijing of violating a 1980 agreement on air travel. It said in response, Chinese carriers would be allowed the same number of flights as Beijing permitted for US airlines.
The department said Donald Trump could put the order into effect before June 16. The department protested last month that Beijing was preventing US airlines from competing fairly against Chinese carriers.
The four airlines affected by the order are Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines.
Before the pandemic, there were about 325 passenger flights a week between the United States and China, including ones operated by United, Delta and American Airlines. While US carriers stopped flying, Chinese airlines made 20 weekly flights in mid-February and 34 by mid-March.
The Transportation Department said it objected to China’s March limit but Beijing responded last week that it was not violating the air-travel treaty because the same one-flight limit applies to Chinese airlines.
United and Delta announced last month that they hoped to resume flights to China in June, as air travel has begun to recover recently. United wants to fly from San Francisco to Shanghai and Beijing and from Newark, New Jersey, to Shanghai. Delta seeks to resume flights via Seoul to Shanghai from Seattle and Detroit.
Australia to restart flights to New Zealand
Canberra Airport opened a register for travellers interested in flying from the Australian capital to New Zealand on July 1 in a proposed resumption of international travel.
The proposal to restart flights connecting the two capitals was under discussion between the two governments as well as Qantas and Air New Zealand, Canberra Airport Managing Director Stephen Byron said Thursday.
Under the proposal, the flights between Canberra and Wellington would not require quarantine of passengers. Canberra Airport opened its register of interest for the first flight on July 1 and 140 names were added within the first hour.
“There’s very strong demand for these flights which supports the commercial proposition, but it also underlines the social importance of starting these flights as soon as the health authorities deem it safe to do so,” Byron told The Associated Press.
“We do think that the time is right now for government to set a date and for the parties to work together to deliver the service on that date,” Byron added.
Return flights would leave Wellington and Canberra on the first morning that flights were allowed, he said.
“We have to be safe, there’ no doubt, but the number of infections on both sides is very low. It is crucial that this is just a trial … and we’ve chosen the two most COVID-safe cities in the world, almost,” Bryon said.
New Zealand is on the verge of eradicating the virus after it notched a 13th straight day with no reported new infections. Only a single person in the nation of 5 million people is known to still have the virus, and that person is not hospitalized. However, it remains likely that the country will import new cases once it reopens its borders, and officials say their aim remains to stamp out new infections as they arise.
Stay a little longer
The British government is confirming plans to impose a 14-day quarantine for people arriving in the country starting next week, despite pleas from the travel industry to drop the idea. Airlines and tour companies say the quarantine will derail plans to rebuild business. It comes as other European countries reopen their borders and ease travel restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Others say the measure comes too late. Britain’s official COVID-19 death toll stands at more than 39,000, the highest in Europe. Officials say the quarantine will help prevent a second wave of infections, though most of Britain’s European neighbours currently have lower infection rates.
Starting Monday, travellers and returning Britons coming from all countries except Ireland, which has a long-standing free-movement agreement with the U.K., will be asked to self-isolate for two weeks.
Breaches can be punished with a £1,000-pound ($1,717) spot fine, or by prosecution and an unlimited fine. But it’s unclear how the quarantine will be enforced. The UK government has said only that people “could” be contacted to ensure they are complying.
