US favors American Airlines for new direct China flight

The US Transportation Department on 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 Air Lines Inc to operate the flight.

Delta already flies a daily nonstop route to China from Seattle, while United Continental Holdings Inc 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 percent for American and United with 75 percent.

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 Transportation Department makes a final decision.