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Continental connects Shanghai to New York

By Liu Jie and Lu Haoting (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-27 07:44

An airport employee waves a Continental Airlines 737 into Gate 134 at Newark Airport in Newark, New Jersey. [Agencies]

Continental Airlines launched the first daily nonstop flight between Shanghai and New York yesterday, making it the first carrier to open a new cross-border route to China this year amid the deepening global economic downturn.

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"China is one of the most important international markets for Continental and is crucial for our future growth and success in Asia," said Jeff Smisek, president and chief operating officer of the US airline.

The service is the first daily nonstop flight connecting the financial centers of two of the world's biggest economies. It also allowed Continental, the world's fifth largest carrier, to become the only airline providing daily nonstop services from three Chinese cities to New York. The Houston-based airline also flies to Beijing and Hong Kong.

"This route will not be profitable in the short term. But it is definitely a golden route over the medium to long term because of the importance of these two cities in the world economy," said Li Lei, aviation analyst, CITIC China Securities.

Chinese airlines had a 16-percent year-on-year drop in passenger traffic on the international routes in February, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said.

The International Air Transport Association said that international air travel demand to and from China is expected to contract between 5 and 10 percent this year.

United Airlines said yesterday that it would defer the start of a nonstop service between San Francisco and Guangzhou to June 30, 2010. The Chicago-based carrier originally planned to launch the flight in 2008, but later decided to defer the service to this year.

Delta Air Lines yesterday said that it would not change the plan to offer nonstop services between Shanghai and Detroit from June despite an announcement in March to cut international capacity by an additional 10 percent starting September. The growing importance of Shanghai as a financial center is attractive to airlines, analysts said.