American Airlines wants a third non-stop China route between Los Angeles and Shanghai.
If approval comes through, a non-stop daily service on a Boeing 777 seating 247 passengers would begin April 5 next year. Los Angeles-Shanghai is the largest air travel market between the US and China, but currently it is served only by China Eastern Airlines.
There are currently 28 unused weekly frequencies available under the US- China Air Transport Agreement, and this new service would take up seven of them. American currently flies from Chicago to both Shanghai and Beijing.
The Street reports that American Airlines is offering to balance this by using Hong Kong – a hub for partner Cathay Pacific whose Dragonair subsidiary serves 15 Chinese cities – and Tokyo, where hub carrier Japan Airlines serves six Chinese cities. After all, as the airline’s vice president of strategic alliances, Kenji Hashimoto, said: "There are a lot of airlines in China."
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