In several press releases issued over the last day, the various airlines have weighed in on the benefits of their proposed China routes. We briefly touched on the issue in a previous post.
United Airlines commented in their press release that a Washington-Beijing service would link the two capitals, and would be the first China destination from the mid-Atlantic states.
American Airlines emphasized the fact that 108 members of Congress endorsed their proposed Dallas to Beijing service in their press release, calling it “unprecedented support.” Their service would be the only from the Southern part of the country.
Northwest’s Detroit to Shanghai service by its press release, received 168,000 signed letters and petitions of support. Their strength would be the connecting traffic available out of Detroit.
Continental Airlines’s press release indicates they have over 110,000 signatures. Their flight would operate from Cleveland to Newark and then on to Shanghai.
By Northwest’s statement, it can provide service for 95 U.S. connecting points as opposed to 48 for American, 43 for United, and 39 for Continental. American claims their number is 89 points beyond the Gateway, putting Continental at 44. We have not looked at the numbers, nor at their algorithms for calculating what optimal connections are. We assume it is based on the estimated timing of their flight versus how many points are available for connection. Since we don’t know the exact timing, or how many flights each airline will adjust to meet it…we cannot estimate ourselves.
Now, each airline makes reasonable arguments against their competitors. United already operates four flights a day to China from the United States and could move one of them to Washington Dulles, although that would cause it to lose service in another city. Northwest already operates flights from Tokyo to China and could move them to Detroit today if it wanted to and has operated nonstop service from Detroit to Shanghai and Beijing in the past.
With four competitors, we agree that entry rights should be awarded to the application that benefits the most U.S. consumers, not to an airline attempting to serve a smaller market or one who dominates the market already.
We are not economic experts…none of us have ever been to China, but it seems to us, despite the issues…the New York area could stand to gain from a U.S. carrier on the route. Detroit seems to be only a transfer point as opposed to a final destination…a good choice would have both benefits. The benefit of Dallas as a destination seems iffy at best as well. Washington is not a bad choice, and has its merits as a hub and capital city service…however United dominates China service right now. Continental’s service would continue to Cleveland, their midwest hub, for a second set of onward connections, and it would bring a U.S. carrier into the New York market. We thus endorse them.
We’d love to hear your opinions.