Exactly two weeks ago Delta announced that they planned to launch daily nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Beijing as of December 16, 2016. Today American has announced that they plan on launching daily nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Beijing as of... wait for it... December 16, 2016! So much creativity among US airlines…
Continue reading: American’s International Expansion Out Of LAX Continues…
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
As far as I know, there is only one slot available, so both airlines won't have LAX-PEK, only one of them will get it.
Bad idea from American. Over capacity to China from just about all AA's hubs and now, not only are they going up against Air China, but they're also going up against Delta on this new route.
They're drunk on big profits and cheap oil and it won't end well when conditions start to go against them.
The winter start time is just ahead of the Chinese New Year and I'm sure both Delta and AA are hoping there will be huge demand from all the Chinese families living in SoCal for travel in both directions for that (major) holiday.
I think its a bad idea for AA. DL has China Eastern and China Southern as partners in China. AA has no Chinese domestic partner ( Hainan Air has big present in PEK but not officially a One World Partner yet). But was surprised to see Air China is monoploy in this route so long.
PEK is capital city, and serve most of Northern part of China. There is some demand but AA needs a domestic partner in PEK.
I think the only way AA could open the LAX-MEL route would be to do it under the JV with QF. It would really piss VA off though as they pulled out of the LAX-MEL route about a year ago so it means less of a reason for their pax to feed to BNE and SYD. But VA may relaunch that route once they expand their fleet a bit once they decide whether to pick up the 777-9Xs or 787s.
With only one US-CHN tier-1 cities slot yet to be granted, AA seems to be challenging DL in the similar way they did for LAX-HND. I'm curious what the real reason for that is. Or, if possible, that DL is setting AA up by announcing this route ahead of AA which has obviously been focusing on expansion of LAX to Asia.
Not sure if there's a need for that route but maybe Doug Parker was listening to Richard Anderson as Delta has had its eyes on expanding its presence in China for quite some time now. I do think competition is always a good thing so we'll see which US airline will get that route.
Can AA secure a good slot in PEK? AA187 arrives in Beijing at 8pm, and AA186 leaves at 10am, which is not ideal. I know DL has swapped slots with MU in PEK. Not having a OW partner in Mainland China will always be a problem for AA.
Where do you mean by "the economy in China isn't strong"? Yes of course the overall GDP growth is below what it has been the last twenty plus years, but it's still growing overall more than just about any other market out there. And personal consumption, an especially big factor in Chinese travel, remains especially strong.
@anon: There are more Mainland Chinese residing in the Greater LA area than those three cities.
Additionally, TPG confirmed DL launching the same route starting in Dec way before AA made the announcement. So if that's confirmed and there's only one slot available, how is AA gonna launch the same route??
@Ben Delta sent out a very misleading press release making it seem like the service was a "done deal." But it wasn't. Delta submitted an application, American contested the application yesterday and submitted its own application and now DOT will open a carrier selection process. Only one airline will be allowed to fly it.