Chinese civilian aircraft to the US are 'avoiding' Russian airspace?

Reuters on June 2 quoted data from flight tracking website FlightAware as saying that Chinese airlines are avoiding flying over Russian airspace for newly approved flights to and from the US.

FlightAware records show that recently approved Chinese flights from Washington do not fly over Russia, while previously approved Chinese airline flights in the US still use Russian airspace.

An Air China plane on the runway at Beijing Capital International Airport

On May 3, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) allowed Chinese airlines to increase their passenger flights to the US to 12 round trips per week, the same number of flights that Beijing had allowed US airlines. Previously, the US had only allowed eight weekly flights from Chinese airlines.

USDOT Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs Annie Petsonk declined to answer questions about whether the Biden administration would require Chinese airlines to avoid Russian airspace as a condition of approving the four new flights.

According to Ms. Petsonk, the 12 weekly flights are just a small fraction of the more than 150 round-trip flights that the US and China authorized for each other before the Covid-19 pandemic. The Chinese Embassy in the US has not commented on the information.

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Russia had previously banned US and other foreign airlines from flying over its airspace, in retaliation for Washington banning Russian flights over the US in March 2022, after the Ukraine conflict broke out.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/may-bay-dan-su-trung-quoc-toi-my-dang-ne-khong-phan-nga-185230602085703367.htm