US suspends 44 flights to China in retaliation for health restrictions imposed by Beijing

To avoid contamination, Chinese crews are subject to drastic procedures, as evidenced by the images on social networks.

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The United States announces the suspension of 44 flights to China by Chinese companies, starting January 30.

A decision that follows the suspension by China of American flights, due to Covid infections. 

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With our correspondent in Beijing,

As a sort of circuit breaker for air links to and from destinations at Covid risk, since the spring of 2020 China has applied the so-called “circuit breaker” strategy, with a simple rule: if five positive cases are reported on a flight, the carrier will no longer be able to provide a connection to China for two weeks.

If it is more than ten cases, the suspension increases to four weeks.

It is in the name of this principle that the Chinese civil aviation authorities suspended 20 flights from United Airlines, 10 from American Airlines and 14 from Delta Airlines at the end of last year.

Very strict sanitary rules

This decision angered Washington, which denounced 

China's "

" with regard to its companies. For the Chinese Embassy in the United States, these American retaliatory measures are considered "

" while the same rule is applied in a "

" manner to all carriers. Strict sanitary measures which, according to foreign companies, are increasingly difficult to respect with Omicron.

To avoid contamination, Chinese crews are subject to drastic procedures, as evidenced by the images on social networks regularly showing Chinese pilots and flight attendants dragging their suitcases in PPE suits at airports, after having been advised to wear diapers to avoid infection in the toilet.

The Civil Aviation Administration in #China recommends that crews wear #diapers on flights from or to infected countries to prevent transmission of the coronavirus by using on-board toilets.

#Covid19 #civilaviation https://t.co/rLYTdcvW6I

— Stephane Lagarde (@StephaneLagarde) December 10, 2020

The same goes for aircraft: a Delta Airlines plane recently had to

order to comply with the cleaning rules imposed by Shanghai International Airport.

Measures that have considerably

 and caused ticket prices to explode.

In order to counter this inflation, expatriates in China are trying to organize charters.

China has virtually closed its borders to travelers, reducing its total number of international flights to 200 per week, or 2% of pre-pandemic levels, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said last September ( CAAC) quoted by

.

This same administration estimating the return to normal traffic not before

.

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