(Yicai Global) Aug 26 -- The United States will suspend 26 flights to China operated by some Chinese airlines from next month in response to a Chinese government decision to halt some US carrier flights as a result of Covid-19 cases.

In a notice issued today, the US Department of Transportation said that a number of US airline flights to China have triggered that country’s Covid-19 circuit breaker and have been grounded. In response, the US plans to suspend flights operated by four Chinese carriers.

As a result, flight capacity on China-US routes, already in short supply, will be cut again. According to the notice, the US will cancel flights of Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines between Sept. 5 and 28.

Only those four Chinese carriers operate China-US flights at the present time, while US carriers plying the route are United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

Amid the pandemic, China’s Civil Aviation Administration reduced the number of international flights from March 29, 2020. Right now there are just 18 direct flights between China and the United States every week, a far cry from the multiple daily flights before Covid-19. The CAAC has adjusted the circuit breaker for scheduled international passenger flights since August.

The aviation regulator has further relaxed the mechanism, which will help to get more international flights off the ground, industry insider Lin Zhijie told Yicai Global.

The circuit breaker was eased from five cases per flight to 4 percent, meaning they are halted when about 10 cases are confirmed on a Boeing 787 aircraft or there are 15 cases on a Boeing 777. The circuit breaker cycle has also been shortened.

The US has responded to the mechanism a number of times. Last August, it asked Chinese operators to limit the load factor of some US-bound flights to 40 percent over the following four weeks. In January, it said 44 flights operated by Chinese carriers returning to the US would be grounded from the end of that month through March.

Today’s notice pointed out that if China changes its policy, the US department will also re-examine the reciprocal measures; but if China continues to cancel American airlines’ flights, it will “take other measures”.

The US transport department’s actions were “extremely irresponsible” and “ungrounded”, Reuters cited Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in the US, as saying. The embassy said the anti-Covid circuit breaker was fair and transparent, applied to Chinese and foreign airlines alike, and was in line with bilateral air traffic agreements.

Editors: Shi Yi, Peter Thomas