Sky Talk

AA wants to delay Chicago-Beijing service

American Airlines has asked the DOT if it can delay its launch of nonstop Chicago-Beijing service until April 2010, a full year after the planned launch.

The airline cited "the extraordinary adverse market and operating conditions affecting the entire airline industry," and said fuel and "general economic conditions" warranted the deferral.Several other carriers have also deferred new routes to China, according to American.

Was it just last year that the airlines were fighting tooth-and-nail to win new routes to China?

- Trebor Banstetter

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

Delta to trim China flights

We've written a lot about the battle among the big airlines to win more flights to China under the new aviation pact. China service is seen as potentially lucrative because of that country's fast-growing economy and the surging demand for business travel there.

But now it looks like one airline, Delta, plans to cut back its existing service to China. The carrier received permission from the Department of Transportation to reduce winter season flights between Atlanta and Shanghai, switching from daily service to five days a week. The airline says it wants to better match off-season demand.

- Trebor Banstetter

US Airways wants to delay 2009 Philly-Beijing launch

US Airways said Thursday that high fuel prices are forcing the airline to seek a one-year delay in starting a route between Philadelphia and Beijing, The Associated Press reported. In letters to members of Congress and employees, the Tempe, Ariz. airline said the cost for fuel to run the route would be more than $90 million a year — $40 million more than the original estimate of about $50 million, The AP reported.

“We’re optimistic that economic conditions will be on the upswing in 2010, giving us a better chance of success with our first route to China,” Scott Kirby, the company president, said in a letter to workers, according to The AP.

US Airways was supposed to start the route next year, using Airbus A340 jets that would originate in Charlotte. Routes to China from the United States are governed by treaty. Kirby said US Airways would ask the federal Transportation Department for the delay, according to The AP.

-- Scott Nishimura

Big D/FW announcement unrelated to D/FW

Well, we went to hear the big, mysterious D/FW announcement that we blogged about yesterday. Here's what it was:

The Texas Ballet Theater was invited to perform at the China Shanghai International Arts Festival this fall.

Kudos to TBT. But ... we're still trying to figure out what it has to do with D/FW. Here's a bit more from the news release:

Texas Ballet Theater’s participation in the festival supports the continued efforts by American Airlines and the Airport’s Visit DFW Campaign to raise the visibility of North Texas in China.  It also helps them to open another direct portal to China, in addition to American’s parallel route to Beijing.

The airport's Visit DFW effort is trying to improve the visibility of North Texas in China, so perhaps that's the connection.

They're also chatting about this over at the Frontburner blog run by D Magazine.

UPDATE, 3:21 p.m.

We got a note from Ken Capps, the airport spokesman, with his take on why the announcement was indeed a big event for D/FW:

Trebor, the announcement was related to DFW.  The Airport has kicked in $5M to the Visit DFW campaign, being run by the Dallas and FW CVBs to promote DFW as a gateway to the rest of the world.  In a very short period of time, the program has met with great interest and success South America, Mexico and Korea. The program is opening doors and giving the Airport and CVBs better access to these countries than ever before.  That’s why Visit DFW is kicking in 25K to the TBT trip and DFW will gain access to new  business contacts and awareness with new audiences in China. With China tourism to open to the U.S. soon, this is a big market and big deal for the Airport.  While I certainly understand this was a not a new airline announcement – nor did we ever imply it that it was – this is a very strategic business move for DFW to be part of this cultural mission to China. Plus the TBT  performs in Dallas and Fort Worth – and calls both cities home – so it’s a prime way for the Airport to assist both Owner Cities in their promotion of tourism/culture. 

- Trebor

United's newest service to China

United Airlines announced it will kick off its San Francisco-Guangzhou service on June 18.

The flight -- which is 13 hours from China to the U.S. and 14 hours and 25 minutes on the return trip -- is now open for sale, the Chicago-based airline said today.

The U.S. Transportation Department recently awared United the new U.S. route to Guangzhou, which is the country's manufacturing capital.

-David

What could it be, what could it be?

Thinking about the news conference that D/FW Airport will hold tomorrow at 4 p.m. at Terminal D (model, pictured left), here's some possibilities.

• Air France has yet to bring its nonstop service back to D/FW Airport. The airline was last here in 2001, but pulled out when the airline market tanked right after 9/11.
• British Airways is on a roll with its expansion around the globe. The London-based airline already made a big joint announcment with D/FW Airport recently when it said it was switching its daily D/FW-London Gatwick flight to be D/FW-London Heathrow next spring. That announcement also include a nice gift presentation as the airport is aluding it will do tomorrow. Jeff Fegan, D/FW's chief executive, gave Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways a nice cowboy hat among other things.
• China Eastern Airlines is being pursued by D/FW Airport officials, as we reported a couple weeks ago. We're hearing that's one of the less likely scenarios out there, but then again, who knows?

Joe Lopano, whose main responsibility is bringing in new airlines, has been talking about how he might be close to bringing in a new foreign-flag carrier. He will be at the news conference tomorrow. That's because he just returned from a trip to Stockholm for the 2007 Routes conference where airport and airline execs from around the world get together to talk about new flights. Perhaps Lopano is bringing back a freshly minted deal from there.

What do you think, or what have you heard?

-David

AA, others get China flights as well

The DOT has announced some additional China flights on top of the Atlanta-Shanghai route we blogged about earlier, including American's request for a nonstop from Chicago to Beijing. These flights will begin in 2009.

Like the Delta decision, the 2008 flights weren't competitive. The DOT had four slots to award, and four applicants. In addition to American, other airlines getting flights included:

* Continental, with a Newark-to-Shanghai route

* Northwest, which will fly to Shanghai from Detroit

* US Airways, with a Philadelphia to Beijing flight

The DOT also said it awarded a route to United Airlines to Guangzhou from San Francisco. That flight, which begins in 2008, was only open to airlines that wanted to fly to Guangzhou.

- Trebor

(AP photos: Mao at Tiananmen Square, AA's first flight to Shanghai arrives May 2006, panda at the Beijing Zoo)

Next China flight: Atlanta to Shanghai on Delta

In a move that won't surprise anyone who follows the battles among airlines to fly to China, the U.S. Department of Transportation said Tuesday that Delta can begin nonstop service between its hub in Atlanta and Shanghai, effective March 30, 2008.

Delta was considered a lock for this round of service, because it was open only to carriers that lack any service to China. American, United, Northwest and Continental all already have some service.

But the bid could have an impact on American's hopes of eventually getting nonstop China flights from D/FW. When the airline proposed a route from North Texas to Beijing last year, one chief selling point was that it would depart from a major hub in the southern U.S. for the first time. Now, Atlanta will have that distinction.

- Trebor

Another chance for DFW-China?

Readers may recall the last time D/FW officials were hopeful about nonstop service to China. American Airlines was hoping to fly from D/FW to Beijing, but their bid fell apart amid a squabble between airline executives and pilots.

Now the folks at the airport are trying again, and this time they don't have to worry about problems with any pilots unions. The airport plans to try to woo China Eastern Airlines into offering nonstop service between D/FW and Shanghai, according to Joe Lopano, executive vice president of marketing and terminal management.

Winning a China Eastern flight will be D/FW's top priority later this month at the annual World Routes Development Forum, a massive airport and airline conference that will be held in Stockholm. At Routes, airport executives try to lure airlines from across the globe to their cities. Lopano said the airport will make a case to China Eastern that flying to D/FW will be good for business. He said the airport is a particularly good gateway for the airline because it's the largest hub for American Airlines, which has a codesharing relationship with China Eastern. That means the airline can fly someone from Shanghai to D/FW, then connect them to an American flight to almost any city in the United States.

He acknowledges that there's a lot of competition, but he's hopeful that the airport can plant the seeds that will bloom into service, particularly if the government loosens restrictions on tourism visas from China.

"We have a good case to make," he said.

- Trebor