US to ban passenger flights from China | Hacker News Reader

US to ban passenger flights from China

bbc.com

38 pointsonemoresoop6 comments

I wouldn't read too much into this, as corona is still active. Also, Chinese airports are fairly tough on sick passengers, so the average American doesn't want to get stuck in a holding room or quarantine hospital over there.

(I cancelled a planned trip in Feb. for literally that reason, "I don't wanna get stuck in a holding room in Pudong." Also, airport staff are polite, but don't speak English. Pro tip: use a smartphone translator from English -> Chinese -> English.)

But the article has an interesting statistic that's amazing:

> In January, there were about 325 round-trip flights weekly between the US and China.

Wow. That's 97,500 passengers each way at 300 pax per trip.

There's no way to contain a pandemic with traveller numbers like that.

(It does strengthen my position that the SF Bay Area likely has fairly advanced herd immunity already.)

China is refusing to let US carriers fly to China again, even though Chinese carriers are still flying.

So, this is reciprocity.

> Beijing in March said domestic and foreign airlines could operate no more than one weekly flight between China and any given country, adding that carriers could not exceed the level of service they were offering on 12 March. The Department of Transportation said the March order had effectively banned US airlines, which had voluntarily suspended service...

I would have been a great idea on December 30th.

just as other countries closed their borders to China it seems fair for China to now close its borders or not accept flights to/from other countries with uncontrolled spread of covid.

But that is not what this is about. Read the title at very least, it is about US banning the flights from China.

China does allow flights to and from the US on Chinese airlines - the "fairness" you allude to implies that US airlines should be able to fly to China as well.

Despite the title there are a lot of restrictions from the chinese side as well:

>Beijing in March said domestic and foreign airlines could operate no more than one weekly flight between China and any given country

>The Department of Transportation said the March order had effectively banned US airlines

>In recent weeks, China has moved to loosen restrictions on charter flights from some countries but not the US

Even domestic chinese airlines are only allowed 1 flight per week between china and any country

Reply on news.ycombinator.com