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US airlines battle for last China-US route

By Lu Haoting (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-18 13:55

It's a bit like the Oklahoma land rush of 1889, when thousands of Americans raced to claim a piece of land.

Major US carriers that currently fly to China are rushing to plant their flag in the last new route to the country before 2008.

The US Department of Transportation has received applications for the route from the carriers. It's expected to make a decision at the end of this year.

Winning the bid is particularly important to US carriers at this moment, because it is the last allowed by the current Sino-US bilateral aviation agreement signed in 2004. The two governments failed to pass a new one in negotiations this spring.

"The US government could provide four frequencies to one carrier and three to another," says Theo Panagiotoulias, American Airlines' vice president for the Asia-Pacific region. "But we've heard that the intention is to provide seven frequencies to one carrier."

As the latest US player to join the game, American launched daily non-stop flights between Chicago and Shanghai in April this year.

Now, the carrier is applying to fly daily non-stop between Dallas and Beijing with Boeing 777s starting from March 2007. If approved, it will be the first route that links China and southern parts of the United States.

United Airlines, the largest carrier flying a China-US route, has applied for daily non-stop services, sending Boeing 747s between Washington D.C. and Beijing, starting from March 2007. That would be the first capital-to-capital air service between the United States and China.

Northwest Airlines, which has been operating in China for two decades, wants to fly daily non-stop routes between Detroit and Shanghai with Boeing 747s.

Continental Airlines is applying to launch daily non-stop flights between New York and Shanghai next March. The carrier started a daily non-stop New York-Beijing service in June last year.