Coming soon: fly direct from Shanghai to … somewhere
By James Roy November 1st, 2006
I spoke with some very excited gentlemen from Continental Airlines at a recent convention on business travel in Shanghai. The reason for the excitement: their proposed direct route from Shanghai to Newark, in consideration with three other bids from American carriers (Northwest wants a Shanghai-Detroit haul; United wants a “capital to capital” Beijing-Washington flight; American wants Shanghai-Dallas) is expected to be decided on next month. Though there will be a “rebuttal” period after the bid is announced, the winner could start service as soon as March.
The airlines aren’t waiting for a green light from the authorities in Beijing - that was already taken care of with a joint agreement between the US and Chinese governments. Right now the ball is in the US Department of Transportation’s court. This article highlights each carrier’s proposition. A running account of the story so far has been detailed on USA Today’s air travel blog.
Each airline seems to be badmouthing the others’ routes, in what one analyst calls “the best and most intense [route] competition I’ve ever seen”.
So which route makes the most sense (leaving aside the quality of the airlines, that is - I’d like to see Cathay Pacific get that flight as much as the next person, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen)? As a Shanghai resident I may be biased, but to me Shanghai to Newark would seem to be the elementary choice, for a couple of reasons.
First, it links the the business capitals of world’s largest economy and its fastest-growing challenger for the title. The “capital to capital” rationale seems more shamelessly symbolic and less sensical to me. I could be wrong, but does the traffic of US and Chinese government personnel back and forth from Beijing to Washington, DC really warrant an air route？ Detroit seems somewhat redundant when United already has daily service from Shanghai and Beijing to Chicago O’Hare. As for Dallas/Fort Worth, there is an argument about that hub’s connections to Latin America, but really, that route can wait. Let’s have a Shanghai-New York (effectively) connection first.
Second, it is just plain cool not having to fly over the Pacific or the Atlantic to get to the other side of the world. The Newark flight goes straight north, over Kamchatka in far eastern Russia (thank you for finally opening that airspace), over the North Pole and down through Hudson Bay in Canada, and shaves multiple hours off that flight. Counter-arguments/brighter ideas are welcome.
November 9th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
[...] Ask not what your country can do for you … unless you’re a Chinese state-owned airline and it can secure you a plum route to New York before any of your American competitors can. Starting this December, China Eastern Airlines will have a four-times-a-week direct flight to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, and is offering some mighty attractive fares for its first month of service - one travel agent sent us a promotion advertising a round-trip ticket at an unheard-of RMB2,888, or US$366 “between December 11th and January 10th”. (Just don’t bother trying to book a flight anytime near Christmas. Or New Year’s.) The flights begin at about the same time an announcement is expected on which US airline will get the remaining flight between the US and China, which we wrote about last week. That route, still pending US Department of Transportation approval, would likely begin flying back in forth in March. China has not yet used up its allotment of flights to the US under its most recent bilateral agreement (under the agreement there is a certain number of flights allotted to airlines from each country), so expect more US routes for the big state-owned carriers in the future as traffic continues to ramp up. China Eastern will be using its Airbus 340-600s on the route, which is about 14 hours either way. Compare that to the next-shortest/-cheapest Shanghai-New York flight I could find. Before we all get too excited, just remember this is China Eastern we’re talking about here. Say what you will about American carriers, they will at least dare to explain to passengers the reasons for delays instead of say, giving a making vague statements and breaking out the refreshment cart while the plane is still on the tarmac. China Eastern’s reputation for comfort and service is mixed at best. [...]