Charters exempted from US DOT order regarding China flights

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) has recently informed the Commonwealth Ports Authority that charter flights are exempted from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s China Part Order 213 which caps the number of flights from China to any destination in the United States.

In response to CPA’s request for support in its endeavor to get a federal exemption to US DOT’s cap on China flights, Sablan informed CPA that charter flights are exempted from the limitation therefore he believes that the order will not affect Chinese tourism to the Marianas.

“The DOT restriction, only applies to scheduled air service and thus should not affect Chinese tourism to the Marianas. According to DOT, charter flights between China and the Marianas are still allowable. Chinese tourists can travel to the Marianas via nonscheduled charter flights, which, I understand, is how most Chinese visitors arrive,” he said.

However, in response to this letter, CPA chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds stated that what many don’t understand is that Chinese tourist have been traveling to the CNMI on scheduled charter flights which means they are subject to the limitations imposed by US DOT’s China Part Order 213. This is why, King-Hinds said, CPA is seeking an exemption.

“The challenge is that everybody assumes that all these China flights are regular charter flights. However, what they really are are scheduled charter flights. Meaning, they are scheduled flights that tour companies buy seats from. They don’t buy all the seats, they buy a certain percentage of seats from these scheduled flights. These are seats that they guarantee will be paid for. To that extent, these tour companies are chartering but it is still a scheduled flight that they’re buying a bunch of seats from. So, it’s not technically a charter because they aren’t chartering the whole flight, they’re just buying a large number of seats. Hence the need for the exemption to remove the barrier so that these flights can come back. Because they are scheduled flights, they are not exempted from the limitations,” she said.

King-Hinds explained that if not given the exemption, the CNMI would have to compete with destinations like Los Angeles and even New York for Chinese tourists as the US DOT order only allows 24 flights from China to the entire US, a month.

“We were exempted before through the US-China transportation bilateral agreement under a provision called annex six. The provision specifically exempted Guam and the CNMI. But, China Order Part 213 issued by the US DOT back in 2020 basically removed that exemption and made the limitation applicable to everyone flying in and out of the United States. Under the order, by the end of October, the limitation would be 24 flights from China to the US a month, that means if the CNMI is not exempted, it would have to compete with markets like Los Angeles, New York,” she said.

According to the Office of the Secretary of Transportation, DOT Order 2020-6-1 limits the number of Chinese carriers flying to any U.S. point, including flights between China and the Marianas pursuant to Article 6, Annex VI of the U.S.-China Civil Air Transport Agreement.

DOT’s action was taken in response to China’s unilaterally imposed COVID-19 restrictions that all but shuttered the U.S.-China passenger air transportation market for three years. This was inconsistent with China’s binding obligations to the United States under the U.S.-China Civil Air Transport Agreement.

DOT is gradually increasing capacity to facilitate an orderly reopening of the U.S.-China market, in accordance with public interest.

Chinese carriers are currently authorized to provide 18 weekly round trip flights to the United States.

This number will increase to 24 weekly flights beginning October 29, 2023.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China is responsible for allocating those flights to U.S. destinations and, to date, has not allocated flying to the Marianas.