Chinese airlines will be allowed to expand their flights to the US, in a small concession from Washington to Beijing that comes as the two countries struggle to stabilize their turbulent relationship, reports the Financial Times. The Department of Transportation on Wednesday issued an order allowing Chinese carriers to boost their weekly round-trip flights from eight to 12, matching the number of flights to China that US carriers have.
The department told the Financial Times it would “continue to assess how and when to further modify its posture towards PRC [People’s Republic of China] carrier flights in a manner that offers a competitive operating environment for the air carriers in the US”.
Beijing had been pushing the US to approve the change, partly to boost tourism but also to encourage more foreign investment in the wake of the decision to scrap its zero-COVID policy late last year.