US airlines oppose China’s bid to add more flights

On Thursday, the head of the industry group representing major US airlines voiced opposition to China's efforts to increase the number of direct flights between the two nations. Chris Sununu, who heads Airlines for America, argued that Chinese carriers are currently granted an unfair advantage by being permitted to overfly Russia on eight flights, necessitating a costly detour for US airlines.

Xi Jinping, the Chinese President, suggested during a Washington event that both countries could increase direct flights to boost two-way travel and trade. Currently, each side operates around 50 round-trip weekly flights, a figure which rose to 12 between the nations until August 2023. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in early 2020, the two countries were allowed 150 weekly round-trip passenger flights each.

Sununu criticized the imbalance, stating that granting China even more flights would significantly disadvantage US airlines. He urged not to exacerbate the disadvantage caused by the ban on US carriers flying from the East Coast to China due to Russia's airspace restrictions. The US imposed this ban following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in March 2022, and China later agreed not to allow US flights over its airspace in a deal struck in 2023.

In October 2025, the US Transportation Department proposed a ban on Chinese airlines flying over Russia to level the playing field, but this proposal was met with opposition from other US agencies and was ultimately shelved.