US proposes awarding new direct China flight to American Airlines

The US DoT Monday said it was proposing to award American Airlines a new daily scheduled nonstop flight between Los Angeles and Beijing. The Obama administration has been considering rival applications from American and Delta to operate the flight. Delta already flies a daily nonstop route to China from Seattle, while United Continental has service from San Francisco. Delta said in a Transportation Department filing that it has a 9 percent share of the seats to Beijing - including codeshare flights - compared with 15% for American and United with 75%. American argued in a filing that Delta already holds a significant advantage over American in US-Chinese flight competition, with Delta and alliance partners, China Eastern and China Southern, serving nearly twice as much US-China traffic as American and Hainan Airlines combined. Those opposed to awarding American the flight have until Nov. 22 to file comments before the DoT makes a final decision.<br/>