Top Biz News

Airline hopes for Shanghai flight

By Wang Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-30 08:53

Moreover, Kellner emphasized that the success of the Beijing-New York service can add weight to Continental's application for a new route linking Shanghai and New York.

Despite being in service for just over a year, the Beijing-New York flight has been successful, with its load factor reaching 85 per cent.

"Based on our successful Beijing-New York service over the past 15 months, and strong business and leisure market demand in the Shanghai-New York market, we are confident that Continental Airlines will be awarded the Shanghai-New York route which will start in March 2007," Kellner added. The Continental chairman expected the DOT's final decision to be made by the end of this year.

"At the present stage, it is hard to predict who will win the competition to offer the added service. What is certain is that all four US airlines are keen to open new business to China, and how effectively they lobby the US transport authority will make the difference," said Liu Weimin, director of the Aviation Laws Research Centre with the Civil Aviation Management Institute of China.

Apart from Continental, the other three major US carriers  United, Northwest, and American Airlines  are all vying to expand their flights to China.

United plans to offer flights from Washington D.C. to Beijing, as there is currently no service between the two capitals. American Airlines hopes to add a service between Dallas/Fort Worth and Beijing, while Northwest has proposed a Detroit-Shanghai route.

"We understand that Continental has the upper hand in the competition for the new route, because its proposed flight links Shanghai and New York, where lots of Chinese people live. However, we also believe the New York area is already well served by Chinese carriers, such as Air China and China Eastern," said Ai-Phuong Dang, vice-president of Air Service Development for Dallas/ Fort Worth Airport.

"In comparison, the southern part of the United States, such as Texas, is under-served by direct flights to and from Chinese cities. That is why we think American Airlines also has a chance to win the new route," Dang stressed. Currently, there are only three US gateways to China  Newark, Chicago and San Francisco.

Compared to their US counterparts, major Chinese carriers with flights to the United States are not so advanced in terms of their plans to tap the potential of Sino-US routes.