United Airlines is proposing daily nonstop flights between Washington Dulles International Airport and Beijing. The service would be the first between the two capitals.
Washington is the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. without nonstop air service to China, United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said.
Flights could begin as early as March if the U.S. Department of Transportation approves the airline’s application for service.
The Washington-Beijing service is needed to better serve the airline’s East Coast customers, Ms. Urbanski said. Chicago and San Francisco are the only U.S. cities with nonstop service on United to China.
Costs and flight times have yet to be worked out, she said.
No airline currently flies nonstop to China from any Washington-area airport. Korean Air, which flies to Seoul direct from Dulles, and Japan’s ANA, with service from the airport to Tokyo, offer the only nonstops to the Asia-Pacific region from Washington.
In a letter to the Department of Transportation supporting the proposed route, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican, said United’s proposed Beijing route would help support better economic relations between the U.S. and China.
“Capital-to-capital service will support continuous dialogue that is critically needed between these two governments as China continues to grow in the global economy,” Mr. Hastert wrote.
The Transportation Department did not comment on the proposal.
United long has had a strong presence in the Asia-Pacific region, with the area responsible for about 25 percent of the airline’s overall passenger and cargo capacity, the company says. The region also accounts for about 40 percent of United’s cargo-division revenue.
The airline isn’t the only U.S. carrier eager to tap into the China market, as Northwest, American and Continental airlines also have applied for new nonstop service between the U.S. and the communist nation.
United’s proposed Beijing route is part of an overall push by the airline to increase its presence at the Northern Virginia airport, a key East Coast hub for the Chicago airline.
United plans to add 22 daily domestic and international flights from Dulles in the fall, including daily nonstop service to Narita, Japan, and three nonstop flights a week to Kuwait City.
“We’ve been a major gateway across the Atlantic [Ocean] for years, but now we’re starting to broaden that international market,” said Tara Hamilton, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which manages Dulles and Ronald Reagan Washington National airports. “This can open up a whole range of trade and tourism and other spinoff benefits for the area.”
Passenger traffic at the airport is down 24 percent during the first half of 2006, compared with the same period last year. Part of the drop-off is a result of the grounding of former budget carrier Independence Air, which ceased operations in January.
But several other airlines recently have announced plans to increase or introduce flights at Dulles. Southwest Airlines is scheduled to begin flying from the airport in October, and JetBlue Airways last week began new daily service to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. JetBlue also will begin service to West Palm Beach, Fla., from Dulles later this year.
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