On one side? Washington D.C.
On the other? Beijing.
Caught in between? Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and a host of Chinese carriers.
A political squabble between the U.S. and China could delay the resumption of international air travel among the two countries after flights were suspended over the coronavirus pandemic in March.
In short, it has been a contentious back-and-forth. The White House has accused China of blocking American carriers from resuming flights to China; in turn, the U.S. is more heavily scrutinizing Chinese airlines, according to CNN.
What triggered the initial response from the U.S.? Both Delta and United want to restart their lucrative routes to China next month and have submitted applications to resume flights to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) after having suspended flights more than two months ago due to the coronavirus.
But to stem the tide of foreigners bringing imported cases of the virus to China, the CAAC has ordered all airlines to use their flight schedules from March 16 to 22 as their baseline for how many flights can logistically be operated to and from China. But Delta and United had already stopped flying to Beijing, Shanghai and other cities by those dates, so they have no benchmark.
CNN says the CAAC has not responded to United and Delta's requests to resume operations, according to the US agency.
Meanwhile, several Chinese airlines have continued to fly US-China routes throughout the pandemic. But the Chinese aviation regulator has limited each of them to operating just one weekly flight to the United States.
The Chinese aviation regulator told US officials that they are considering removing the March benchmark, but the cap of one weekly flight to China would also be imposed on US airlines. That would violate an air transport agreement between the two countries.
"China is opposed to any US measures that may disrupt or restrict Chinese carriers' normal commercial passenger flights," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said during a regular press briefing.
Zhao also pushed back against Washington's claims that it was preventing US carriers from operating in China, adding that the country's measures are "open, fair and transparent."
The U.S. Department of Transportation last week issued an order requiring Chinese airlines that fly to the United States to file flight schedules with the US government, including details about the type of equipment used, the frequency of each flight, specific airports served at each point and arrival and departure times.
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