United to restart flights between US and China

United Airlines announced on Friday it will resume service between the U.S. and China on July 8 following a suspension of those flights since February due to the coronavirus. 

The flight between San Francisco and Shanghai through Seoul-Incheon, South Korea, will operate on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Return flights to San Francisco from Shanghai will operate on Thursdays and Sundays. 

United also plans on resuming flights from the U.S. to Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Singapore in July.

Delta became the first U.S. airline on Monday to announce it was restarting flights to China. Starting Thursday, it began running a flight between Seattle and Shanghai, through Seoul-Incheon, twice a week.

The announcement comes after the Transportation Department said last week that airlines could continue four flights weekly between the U.S. and China.

“United’s service to mainland China has been a point of pride for our employees and customers for more than 30 years,” Patrick Quayle, United’s vice president of international network and alliances, said in a statement on Friday. “Resuming service to Shanghai from the United States is a significant step in rebuilding our international network.”

United’s health and safety measures include requiring all passengers to wear face coverings, removing travel privileges for customers who refuse and offering customers touch-less baggage check-in. It is also regularly sanitizing all aircrafts and using circulation systems with filters that extract up to 99.97 percent of airborne particles.

The airline will be requiring customers acknowledge they have not contracted the coronavirus when they check in. American Airlines announced on Friday it will begin asking customers during check-in to certify that they have not had coronavirus symptoms for 14 days on June 30.