China: Airlines locked in battle to win lucrative US routes

China Southern plans to take advantage of its ties with American Airlines to help beef up its US routes and close in on mainland rivals, the Chinese carrier’s President Tan Wangeng said. A new airport in Beijing, once up and running in 2019, will serve as the state airline’s second hub flying almost 50m passengers in and out of China, even more than the 30m the carrier flew in 2016 from its home base of Guangzhou in southern China, Tan said. China Southern plans to operate 250 aircraft out of the new airport, and will introduce more US flights along with American Air, he said. “The market between China and the US is the biggest one,” Tan said. “We now have flights to cities like New York and Los Angeles but they are just not enough. We hope the frequency reaches a point where people can fly to Beijing for a conference and back to New York in a single day.” Tan’s ambition is part of an ongoing race among China’s top three state carriers to fly profitable routes to the world’s major hubs ranging from New York and Los Angeles to London and Frankfurt. The second Beijing airport will free up more slots for members of the SkyTeam alliance such as China Southern, Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines Corp. and potentially break the dominance of Beijing-based flag carrier Air China Ltd. in international long-haul flights. <br/>