U.S. Carriers Will Fight Over New China Routes, But Won’t Increase Service
Jeff Edwards November 14, 2018
The Motley Fool reports that while United States airlines are fighting to win government approval for additional flights to China, the carriers aren’t in an especially big rush to increase service to mainland China. The ‘truly absurd’ battle to establish the rights to the potentially lucrative routes hasn’t yet translated into much in the way of regularly scheduled flights, but already has legacy carriers pointing fingers at each other.
There are obvious reasons why China’s rapidly growing economy might make commercial airline service between the growing superpower and the United States big business. Regulators only allow a limited number of direct flights between the two countries and legacy carriers seem intent on making sure they get their fair share of the pie.
Although U.S-based airlines see potential in service to destinations in China, the carriers aren’t ready to commit to substantially increasing daily flights. According to a new report, American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines have no plans to add new flights to China any time in the near future, but this hasn’t stopped the carriers from fighting tooth-and-nail to win the rights to the highly coveted routes.
“The bizarre thing in this case is that none of the three airlines is interested in adding new flights to China until June 2020,” The Motley Fool’s Adam Levine-Weinberg wrote this week. “Yet this could be a bitter fight, as American, Delta, and United all recognize the long-term strategic importance of flying to China and want to make sure they can add flights to the market when it becomes profitable to do so.”
At times, the feuding airlines have accused each other of failing to live up to promises to provide regular service after winning previous China routes from the U.S Department of Transportation (DOT). In September, American Airlines announced that it would eliminate direct flights between China and its Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) hub, but rather than allowing that valuable route to end up in the hands of the competition, the airline instead applied for a “dormancy waiver” from the DOT.
Levine-Weinberg notes that it appears the big three airlines are, in many cases, less concerned with winning the right to expand service to China than they are about making sure their rivals are losers. In the short term, it seems the battle among carriers to gain increased access to China remains very much a case of much ado about nothing.
[Photo: Shutterstock]
You’re Reading
@ChinaShrek: Chinese flyers may have a case if they were Japanese, but Chinese airlines aren't exactly five stars either. This should be cause for alarm for US legacy carriers though. Chinese airlines aren't exactly classy and yet they compare advantageously to them. Which means that the truly great ones are miles in front of them. Doesn't matter right now with a buoyant market, but the day the market isn't so great then it will matter a lot.
Chinese flyers prefer to fly Chinese airlines. This is because they see American airlines' service as inferior and they tend to be very nationalistic.
The delay in starting service has nothing to do with getting the route authority. It has more to do with getting a viable time for landing/takeoff at the proposed airport.
It's ridiculous. China isn't an open skies market, and there are only limited slots, so if you're not going to use them, they should be put back in the pool for other airlines to apply for. Not to 'hold' simply so others can't use them if they want them. Both UA and DL seem to have put in applications (or want to) for service that could replace AAs canceled China routes. There's no reason why AA should be able to leave them dormant, and why UA/DL shouldn't have access to them. If AA had specific routes and start timelines for them, then that might be an arguable thing. But they don't.
American has cut down to 5 or 6 flights per week out of LAX to mainland China and the load factors are still low. I count about 13 Chinese airlines (including Taiwan and Hong Kong) flying out of LAX these days and I can't even name 10 US carriers operating out of LAX.