China Eastern Airlines requests authorization to reroute New York-Shanghai flights

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China Eastern Airlines on Wednesday asked the U.S. Transportation Department for approval to temporarily shift New York to Shanghai flights over COVID-19 measures.

A 737 MAX heads to Boeing’s China plant.

The carrier said because of “evolving coronavirus pandemic control measures in the Shanghai region, China Eastern has been instructed” by Chinese aviation officials “to divert Shanghai-bound passenger flights arriving from the U.S. to certain alternate airports in China.”

China Eastern asked approval starting March 31 to move existing twice-weekly Shanghai westbound passenger flights from New York to China’s Fuzhou Changle International Airport through the end of April, Reuters reported.

China’s aviation regulator said on Tuesday it will divert 106 international flights scheduled to arrive in Shanghai to other domestic cities from March 21 to May 1 due to COVID-19.

Heathrow airport no longer requires mandatory use of face masks.

The impacted flights include those operated by Air China, China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines, Juneyao Air and Spring Airlines, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said.

Shanghai, which reported five new local symptomatic transmissions and nearly 200 domestically transmitted asymptomatic carriers on Tuesday, said on Wednesday it has identified some key areas and would finish testing all people in those areas twice between Wednesday and Thursday.