After months of delay, American has secured a slot for their Los Angeles to Beijing flight. American has petitioned the governments of China and the US for the right to fly from LAX to PEK over a year ago. The interesting thing about this is the drama that’s been involved for this flight.

 

Taking it Away from Delta

Originally, Delta was the airline that applied for the rights to serve this route. About two weeks later, American applied for the same route. Bear in mind that for flights between the US and China are regulated by bilateral agreements that require consent from both sides of the Pacific. There was only one slot, which was awarded to American. The US DOT’s reasoning was that since American was building up LAX as their Pacific gateway, and Delta already flew from Seattle to Beijing, American deserved the slot.

Drama across the Pacific

After the DOT approved the flight, the drama escalated. It seemed that the Beijing Airport authorities would not give American the slot. The issue escalated to such an extent that American missed their original deadline for initiating the flight. When this happened, and American was shaping to lose the rights, they called on the DOT to remove Air China’s right to fly to IAH. This reaction came on the heels that Air China would need to reapply for their IAH route.

 

Final Approval

Well, it seems that after all this drama, American has resolved their disputes. The resolution came at a very expensive price. Part of American’s decision to invest in China Southern was for them to be able to obtain this slot. Also, the airline has stated their intent to fly their newest 777-200s on this route, however there is currently no way to book the flight at the moment. The LAX departure will be at 11:10am and will arrive at PEK at 4:20pm. The return departs PEK at 6:30pm, and arrives at LAX at 3:15pm.

Landing Thoughts:

This flight has been an ordeal for American. The investment in China Southern, in my opinion, is a sound one. I expect that this is the first of the synergies we will see from this partnership. Now, American will need to compete with Air China on the LAX Beijing route. I believe American offers a better product than Air China, and with better connectivity at LAX, they should provide an improved offering. If American and China Southern do start codesharing out of Beijing, American’s long fought battle would hopefully have been a profitable one.

What do you think? Will you fly the American route to Beijing from LAX? Should Delta be allowed to fly the route too? Let us know!

If you want to stay up to date with the latest airline news follow me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn!

Also follow Travel Update and Boarding Area on Twitter!

H/T: TPG

All images from these two articles on Wikipedia.