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Planned US China Flights Postponed

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

MSNBC.com is just out with a story on United Airlines raising its fares and within that story, I have learned that both United and US Airways will not be going forward with their US to China flights as originally planned:

United Airlines has sought and US Airways plans to ask for one-year delays in launching the new routes, representatives from the carriers said Thursday. United won final approval and US Airways received the tentative go-ahead to launch the routes from the U.S. Department of Transportation in September. The routes in question affect planned United service between San Francisco to Guangzhou, and US Airways flights between Philadelphia and Beijing. United?s request for a delay was approved April 25, while the request from US Airways has not yet been received, Transportation Department spokesman Bill Mosley said. United, a division of UAL Corp., was scheduled to start its new flights in early June, but now plans to postpone the launch until June 2009. Spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said the Chicago-based carrier is scaling back plans for some new international routes where there aren?t ?strong enough economics? to offset higher fuel costs. United received final approval for its route in September, the same time Delta Air Lines Inc. won the opportunity to launch its first flights to China with a daily route between Shanghai and Atlanta. Delta?s flights began March 31. US Airways has begun sending letters to members of Congress and its employees saying it would seek to delay the launch of the new Philadelphia-Beijing route, noting that the cost for fuel would be more than $90 million a year ? $40 million more than the original estimate of about $50 million. ?We?re optimistic that economic conditions will be on the upswing in 2010, giving us a better chance of success with our first route to China,? Scott Kirby, the president of Phoenix-based US Airways Group Inc., said in a letter to workers.

Hainan Airlines, on the other hand, will be starting its Seattle to Beijing direct flight service on June 9 and Northwest Airlines is scheduled to start flights on that same route in March of 2009.

Full post as published by China Law Blog on May 25, 2008 (boomark / email).