DALLAS - Four US airlines bidding for new nonstop routes between China and
the United States took their last shots at each other Monday.
American Airlines, which proposes to fly between Beijing and Dallas-Fort
Worth International Airport beginning next spring, released a list of 108
members of Congress and 15 governors who support its bid.
"This is far broader public support than other airlines have received,"
declared Will Ris, a senior vice president who is the airline's chief lobbyist
in Washington.
United Airlines boasted 110 members of Congress in its corner, including a
hometown booster, House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
United said 28 other countries - even Iran - have service to China from their
capitals and so U.S. regulators should approve its bid to fly between Beijing
and Dulles International Airport outside Washington.
"The evidence is clear: No other proposed route benefits the public as
comprehensively as the Washington proposal," said Jane Garvey, formerly the
nation's top aviation regulator and now touting United's bid.
United, American, Continental Airlines Inc., and Northwest Airlines Corp.
filed proposals several weeks ago with the U.S. Transportation Department, which
will decide by year end who gets several additional slots for daily flights
between the two countries beginning next spring.
In their applications, the airlines took swipes at each other's plans. Monday
was the deadline for the carriers to file rebuttals.
The winner hopes to capture traffic generated by the 2008 Olympics in Beijing
and from increased business ties between U.S. companies and the world's most
populous nation.
Fort Worth, Texas-based American, the largest U.S. carrier and a unit of AMR
Corp., is bidding to become the first U.S. carrier to serve China from a
southern state. It is trying to turn the competition into a two-way race with
Houston-based Continental, complaining that Northwest and United, a unit of Elk
Grove Village, Illinois-based UAL Corp., already offer far more service to
China.
Ris said the Northwest and United bids "should be summarily denied because it
would be patently anticompetitive" until other U.S. carriers are awarded more
China routes.
Continental planned to file its rebuttal later Monday, a spokesman said. Last
month, the carrier said its service between the New York area and Shanghai would
serve four times the number of people as American's proposed Dallas-Beijing
route.
Eagan, Minnesota-based Northwest, which is seeking to add Detroit-Shanghai
service, declined to make immediate comment.