Due to the current condition on the outbreak of novel coronavirus, the United States government has imposed travel restrictions. Specifically, foreign nationals who have travelled to mainland China within the last 14 days will be denied permission to travel to the United States.
Many airlines have cancelled flights due to the dramatic decrease in the number of passengers travelling. That information is available here.
However, as the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) suggested, mainland China carriers should maintain all current international routes, except those routes they are forced to cancel due to regulations posed by the destination country.
Facing this dilemma, Air China have come up with an interesting plan.
Current Routes:
Currently Air China flies to seven airports in the Americas (excluding Canada) San Francisco (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX), Houston (IAH), Washington DC (IAD), New York (JFK, EWR) and Panama City (PTY) all from Beijing (PEK); the Shenzhen (SZX) – Los Angeles (LAX) route is operating as well.
Proposed Routes:
Air China plans to operate passenger and cargo, in both directions, from Beijing (PEK) to Los Angeles (LAX) to San Francisco (SFO). The first flight will commence on 11th February with a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. This route will operate 4 times a week.
Air China also plans to operate passenger and cargo, in both directions, from Beijing (PEK) to New York (JFK) to Washington DC (IAD). The first flight will commence on 12th February with a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. This route will operate 3 times a week.
Note that Air China does not have passenger rights between LAX-SFO and JFK-IAD.
Time:
All the times in the table are local time.
| CA 983 | PEK | 10:30 | LAX | 22:30 |
| CA 983 | LAX | 02:00 | SFO | 03:30 |
| CA 984 | SFO | 05:00 | LAX | 07:00 |
| CA 984 | LAX | 08:40 | PEK | 21:30 + 1 |
| CA 981 | PEK | 07:00 | JFK | 20:30 |
| CA 981 | JFK | 00:10 | IAD | 01:40 |
| CA 982 | IAD | 03:30 | JFK | 05:00 |
| CA 982 | JFK | 06:30 | PEK | 20:35 + 1 |
Service:
Air China’s Boeing 777-300ER aircraft is equipped with 8 First Class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, 42 Business Class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration and 261 Economy Class seats in a 3-3-3 configuration.
However, due to the coronavirus situation, current services are very unusual. Specifically, no pillows and blankets are offered. For food, those sitting in First and Business Class will only receive similar food to the Economy Class passengers.
