No US ruling yet on Air China’s bid for extra flights during Xi Jinping’s visit

The US Department of Transportation has yet to announce online a decision on Air China’s application to add extra flights to support this week’s US-China high-level visit as of late Monday, Hong Kong time, after a trade association backed by the largest US airlines protested against the bid.

The trade group Airlines for America, which represents major US airlines, filed an objection to Air China’sbid for additional Beijing-New York and Beijing-Washington flights for September 19 and 25, saying it was unfair that American counterparts could not fly over Russian airspace, according to a department document.

China on Monday said President Xi Jinping would make a state visit to the United States from Wednesday to Friday.

In the September 17 document, the association said “as the department is well aware, Chinese airlines operate with [the] benefit of access to Russian airspace, which provides for shorter, less costly, and more economical routing on flights to and from China and the United States.”