Originally Posted by AAaLot
I just saw in the UAL forum that UAL had 'applied to fly SFO-CAN'
Who do they apply to?
Why can't they just fly whatever they want [and buy gates, etc.] from people that own them?
UAL (and CO) have applied to the US DOT for authority to fly additional flights to China. China and the US have a somewhat restrictive treaty, but it was amended in 2004 to allow many more flights. Since those rights are somewhat valuable, many airlines will apply for them, forcing the DOT to make some difficult decisions.
All international flights are subject to treaties. As the previous post indicated, many countries have "open-skies" agreements with one another, making new routes very easy to initiate. But flights to China are at the other end of the spectrum.