Originally Posted by
zman
If AA really wanted a new China route CAN would be the way to go. Chances of them getting ORD-PEK are slim. Too many large cities in U.S. are not served at all by a U.S. carrier to ASIA. ORD will not get a fourth flight to an existing city pair. Look for LAX, ATL, DTW, SEA, JFK to get service next. AA if they wanted PEK should have applied for LAX.
I think applying for the CAN route would have been a good idea, but CAN is a lot further from the US than PEK. Since AA couldn't get the pilots to agree to a 6057 nm route in DFW-PEK, it would be an uphill battle getting them to agree to a route to CAN. LAX-CAN is 6284 nm, ORD-CAN is 6721 nm, JFK-CAN is 6953 nm, and DFW-CAN is 7018 nm. The range fully loaded of AA's 777s is 7,730 nm, so it can theoretically make any of those trips (MIA-CAN is too far), but there's not much margin for error.