The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved a request by China Eastern Airlines to temporarily transfer the destination of flights from New York to Shanghai to another Chinese airport.
The US Department of Transportation said Tuesday, March 29, that it approved the Chinese carrier’s request to transfer its existing twice-weekly passenger flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport.
The route will be changed from New York to Changle International Airport in Fuzhou, China, starting from Thursday, March 31, and running through the end of April.
106 international flights to and from Shanghai shifted to other Chinese cities
Chinese aviation officials have asked China Eastern Airlines to transfer passenger flights arriving in Shanghai from the US to certain alternate airports in China due to Covid pandemic control measures in Shanghai.
Specifically, the Chinese aviation regulator said earlier this month that 106 international flights to and from Shanghai scheduled for March 21 through May 1 were being diverted to other Chinese cities due to COVID-19.
The civil aviation authority said that the affected flights include those operated by Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Juneau Air, and Spring Airlines.
The entry points of these airlines will be transferred from Shanghai Pudong Airport to 12 gateway airports, including Chengdu, Dalian, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Jinan, Kunming, Nanchang, Ningbo, Xiamen, Taiyuan, Changsha, and Chongqing.
On Tuesday, March 29, Shanghai began the first phase of a two-stage lockdown that requires about half of the city’s 26 million citizens to stay indoors and implements mass testing.
Since the beginning of 2020, the US and China have repeatedly traded blows over international flights and epidemic prevention restrictions.
In January, the US government said it would suspend 44 flights from the US to China by four Chinese airlines in response to Beijing’s…