U.S. carriers plead their cases with DOT for China routes
By Andrew Compart, Travel Weekly, 11/06/2006
U .S. airlines presented their final arguments to the Transportation Dept. for highly prized new service to China, but don't expect much letup in the airlines' promotional campaigns, which have ranged from full-page ads to fortune cookies.
That's right, fortune cookies. Continental employees came to Capitol Hill Oct. 26 to lobby for the China route and handed out boxes of fortune cookies that contained fortunes promoting Continental's application for service from Newark to Shanghai.
"NY/NJ and Shanghai: Two very big cities -- one very big route," one fortune read.
American, Continental, Northwest and United are competing for the route rights, which would allow for one new daily service beginning March 25. US Airways also is involved, because it plans to put its code on the United flights.
With the last of the legal pleadings checked in, the case is ready for a DOT decision.
American wants route rights for service from Dallas/Fort Worth to Beijing.
Its primary argument: DFW would be "a new gateway to China, and the first China gateway located in the South" and would offer plenty of connecting opportunities via American's hub.
Continental wants the rights for service from its Newark hub to Shanghai, with through service between Cleveland and Shanghai. It argues the New York/Newark-Shanghai base market is nearly five times larger than the DFW-Beijing market, more than two times larger than Northwest's proposed Detroit-Shanghai market and 50% larger as United's proposed Washington-Beijing market.
Continental said its service would link the largest financial and commercial center in both countries and said only its proposal would create service between Shanghai and an entirely new U.S. network.
Northwest applied for Detroit-Shanghai, which it called its "number one international route priority."
It said its four existing nonstop flights from its Detroit hub to Asia are performing "exceptionally well and convincingly demonstrate the enormous potential of Detroit as a nonstop gateway for service to Shanghai."
Northwest said the route would create new one-stop service from 108 U.S. points, including the first one-stop service for 15 cities, and that the proposed single-connection cities and Detroit account for over half of U.S.-Shanghai demand. It also said its new route would allow for more non circuitous connections than the other proposals.
United wants to fly from Washington, to Beijing and has made much of the fact that its service would link the country's two capitals.
This route selection, United said, "presents a unique opportunity for the department to make a real difference in the critical geopolitical relationship between the U.S. and China" by making it easier for government officials, policy makers and China experts to meet face to face. It cited bipartisan support from foreign-policy experts and high-level government officials.
It also said the public would benefit from the first China gateway in the Mid-Atlantic.
"If public and national interest considerations govern (as they should), the award will go to United," it said.
Support groups
The China proceeding began July 17, and the airlines involved have been waging intense PR campaigns ever since.Full-page ads in major newspapers have been commonplace, as have been the extensive efforts to round up political and business support. The airlines got their employees involved and set up Web sites to solicit support from the general public.
For example, American said it has received support from 33 senators from 19 states, 87 representatives from 21 states, 16 governors and the mayors and airport directors of 71 connecting cities as well as endorsements from hundreds of chambers of commerce and businesses and nearly 123,000 individuals. Those 123,000 people filed on-line petitions using American's Flytochinaonaa.com Web site.
Continental said it collected more than 110,000 signatures. Northwest, which set up its own Web site to solicit online petitions, said it has received more than 170,000.
Northwest also blasted what it called "the extensive lobbying efforts and high-priced media campaigns employed by other applicants," claiming that its support is from "a genuine, grass-roots level from consumers and companies who care about and will actually use the service."