The U.S China Express, who will get it.

[T-Bird76]

So has anyone besides me paid any attention to all the fighting going on between AA, CO, UAL, NWA, and DAL over rights to fly more routes to China? It’s a very interesting battle and will give one airline a huge advantage over their competitors. This route authority will make getting LHR route authority look like the equivalent of getting rights to fly to Omaha.

China is the new the crown jewel and where the money is. The ability to link one stop service from hubs here in the U.S to China is a guaranteed source of high yielding revenue for the next 30 years plus.

Here's a look at the players.

AA
DFW-Beijing
DFW will link North American, Central and South America with one stop service to China's Capital. This is a very strong bid.

UAL
IAD-Beijing
The weakest of the bids, however this would be a direct link from Capital to Capital, this is not to be brushed aside so quick.

DAL
ATL-Beijing
Largest hub in the U.S with a very strong presence in the Southeast where many companies from China are setting up shop.

CO
EWR-Shanghai
This would link the busiest commercial sector in the U.S with a major commercial center on mainland China

NWA
DTW-Shanghai
86 percent more one stop cities served then AA and 112% more then UAL and they already have a strong knowledge of Asian service with 5th Freedom rights at NRT.

Stay tuned kids 10 years from now the winner will truly be the largest airline in the world!

[Alex T]

I am rooting for American but I did sign up for NWA because I love the DTW connection at the airport, it truly is a fantastic airport.

Good Luck to the airline that wins it!

Alex

[hiss srq]

Come on lets get it CO.

[mirrodie]

I think the strongest competition lies between AA and CO.

THey are probably both in the best cash position to do itl. But I think CO has the edge with EWR as the spot.

[Matt Molnar]

During the US Open, CO had a contest booth on the bridge connecting the tennis center to Shea Stadium. Next to the contest entry forms, they had pre-written letters available to sign, petitioning the FAA to allow their EWR-Shanghai service.

Personally I'd like to see AA get approved being that they're our flag carrier despite their current downgrades in service. (And I <3 AA 777s). I don't really have any preference regarding the others.

[i_mizrahi]

So has anyone besides me paid any attention to all the fighting going on between AA, CO, UAL, NWA, and DAL over rights to fly more routes to China? It’s a very interesting battle and will give one airline a huge advantage over their competitors. This route authority will make getting LHR route authority look like the equivalent of getting rights to fly to Omaha.

[...]

Stay tuned kids 10 years from now the winner will truly be the largest airline in the world!

I've been following this story for some weeks now, and it is indeed a very intersting battle between the major U.S. carriers.

Three comments:

1) I think DAL is not in this game to begin with.
2) As important as this route is, you can not make a direct prediction that the airline which will win it is surely going to be the greatest carrier ten years from now. Let's not get carried away.
3) It is quite a shame that a simple bussiness decision is involved with such a high volume of political lobbying. Does the FAA really needs all of those pre-printed letters in order to pick the airline, or is it going to be a question of which state has the strongest senator: MI, NJ, TX, VA?

[Mateo]

As great a place as DTW is, shouldn't the fact that NW once served DTW-PVG and then dropped it be a disqualifier?

ATL and DFW may have enormous networks feeding into it, but the connections are awful. Someone from Washington is really going to fly 3 hours down to DFW to then take the nonstop to Beijing? No, they'll do what happens now, take either NH through Tokyo or KE through Seoul.

New York has the market to support the flight on both ends, and the money lies in serving Shanghai. The EWR-PVG service is the one that makes the most sense, although we all know that politics and practicality almost never meet up.