US Airways, NWA, can suspend China flights

US Airways and Northwest Airlines, seeking to pare capacity because of rising fuel costs, won U.S. permission to suspend some China flights without losing rights to fly there later, Bloomberg News reports.

• US Airways can begin its new Philadelphia-Beijing flights March 25, 2010, one year later than planned, the Transportation Department said.
• Northwest can suspend the daily U.S.-Guangzhou cargo flights it was operating, the agency said.
• The U.S. denied seven carriers’ request for blanket authority to suspend international routes, saying it will decide requests individually. US Airways, Northwest, American, United, Delta, Continental and Alaska Air made the request.

U.S. airlines are collectively cutting 20,000 jobs and parking 430 planes to shrink operations after jet-fuel prices doubled in the past year. Carriers need U.S. approval to cut limited-entry international routes or they risk losing those flights to rivals when the economy improves.

US Airways, which last year won permission for its first China flight, requested the one-year delay in May.

The Tempe, Arizona-based carrier said fuel costs made the flight “uneconomic” during 2009. Northwest, which said in April it would suspend Guangzhou all-cargo flights this month, had sought permission to resume the service “as warranted by fuel and economic conditions” any time through March 25, 2011.

The seven carriers sought waiver authority last month without saying how many international routes they may trim or for how long. The agency said it rejected the blanket waiver because each limited-entry market is different.

-- Scott Nishimura