US transport regulators are proposing to ban flights by Chinese carriers which use Russian airspace to access US routes.
The Department of Transportation has issued a proposal which would prohibit several airlines from “utilising Russian airspace in their passenger or combination services” between China and the USA.
This proposal, dated 9 October, would come into effect 30 days after a final order.
It states that aviation agreements governing the air transport relationship between the two countries “explicitly” state that services will be conducted on routes “available to the airlines of both parties”, unless otherwise agreed.
The proposal adds that this stipulation was included at the “express desire” of the USA to “prevent competitive imbalances” which might arise from “unequal access” to third-country airspace.
Russia closed its airspace to US carriers on 17 May 2022, it states, but Chinese carriers do not face such restrictions.
“This imbalance has become a significant competitive factor in the incremental re-opening of the post-Covid US-China air transportation market,” says the regulator.
Without the Russian airspace access, range and payload limitations of US-operated aircraft, along with flight duration and crew duty times, have made US services to China “distinctly less economical”, it adds.
Such is the “unfair” situation that the Department of Transportation is proposing amending Chinese foreign carrier permits with the condition that they “shall not utilise Russian airspace” on any US routes.
US-Chinese agreements allow up to 50 operations per week by each country’s airlines.
