Originally Posted by
STS-134
Wow that's absolutely pathetic. I wouldn't take any airline seriously that didn't at least fly to PEK, PVG, ICN, LHR, and FRA from the US. It's shocking that as late as 1983, UA flew to none of the above.
LOL. I hope the above was a joke.
PVG didn’t open until 1999, and ICN in 2001. UA did fly to SHA (Hongqiao) and GMP (Gimpo) before PVG and ICN opened. My first trip to China included UA on SHA-NRT, and it was very primitive and nowhere like todays SHA or PVG.
The first US-China bilateral air service agreement allowed for a whopping four weekly flights. They were all from the Tokyo fifth freedom hub and were awarded to Pan Am and Northwest. United bought out PA’s Pacific operation in 1986 and took over the China BASA routes. And grew from there.