Three major U.S. air carriers plan to increase direct flights to China beginning this fall following reports that the U.S. and Chinese governments have agreed to double allowed weekly flights between the countries.
American Airlines in January plans to increase its Dallas-Fort Worth and Shanghai service using Boeing 777-200 aircraft to daily from its current four-times weekly schedule, as it sees demand increase, according to the carrier.
“We are grateful to the Department of Transportation and the State Department for their leadership and support and will continue to work closely with the U.S. government as the market slowly reopens,” American said in a statement to BTN.
Delta Air Lines beginning Oct. 29 will operate daily service between Seattle and Shanghai, and three-times-weekly service between Detroit and Shanghai, the carrier announced Wednesday. In March 2024, Delta also will resume four-times-weekly service between Los Angeles and Shanghai, which has been suspended since February 2020.
The Seattle flights will operate on Airbus A330-900 aircraft, while the Detroit and Los Angeles flights will use Airbus A350-900 aircraft.
United Airlines on Oct. 1 will increase service to daily flights between San Francisco and Shanghai, and in November will resume daily flights between San Francisco and Beijing. The updates to United’s Asia-Pacific schedule “are enabled by agreement between the governments of the U.S. and China to increase flights between the two countries,” United said in a statement.
DOT said it would increase on Sept. 1 the number of Chinese flights allowed to fly to the U.S. to 18 weekly roundtrips, and beginning Oct. 29 would increase that to 24, up from the current 12, according to a Reuters report, adding that the Chinese government agreed to the same increase for American carriers.
On Aug. 10, China lifted restrictions on group tours for the United States and other countries, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
DOT did not respond to multiple requests for confirmation.
