Delta Air lines has finally received approvals for a belated resumption of China flights.
It received approval from the Shanghai government to restart flights with effect from June 18.
Atlanta based Delta filed a request to operate twice a week from Seattle to Shanghai via Seoul, although this is still pending a final approval from China’s civil aviation regulator.
Delta and United Airlines’ submissions to resume China flights were repeatedly denied or ignored, prompting the US government to get tough.
The US department of transportation threatened a ban on Chinese airlines from operating flights to and from the US in retaliation.
It claimed China was violating a binding bilateral Air Transport Agreement.
That was enough to get Chine to ease its restrictions and said it would allow more foreign airlines to operate inbound flights.
Airlines can progressively increase the number of flights into China if no passengers on the flights subsequently test positive for Covid-19.
If there are no positive cases for three consecutive weeks, flight frequencies can be doubled, although if there are positive tests, service may be temporarily suspended.
