The U.S. Transportation Department plans to issue a revised order in the coming days that is likely to allow some Chinese passenger airline flights to continue, government and airline officials said.

On Thursday, China said it would ease coronavirus restrictions to allow more foreign carriers to fly to the mainland, shortly after Washington said it planned to bar Chinese passenger airlines from flying to the United States by June 16 due to Beijing’s curbs on U.S. airlines.

The announcement should allow U.S. carriers to resume once-a-week flights into a city of their choosing starting on June 8.

The Transportation Department did not immediately comment.

The department said on Wednesday it would allow Chinese carriers to operate “the same number of scheduled passenger flights as the Chinese government allows ours.”

The U.S. order would halt the four weekly U.S. roundtrip flights by Air China , China Eastern Airlines Corp, China Southern Airlines Co and Xiamen Airlines Co.

U.S. and airline officials have privately raised concerns about the revised Chinese rules.

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have asked to resume flights to China this month, even as Chinese carriers have continued U.S. flights during the pandemic.

A Delta spokeswoman said the company was reviewing the order from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

The CAAC said all airlines will be allowed to increase the number of international flights involving China to two per week if no passengers on their flights test positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, for three consecutive weeks.

Reuters

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