U.S. Approves United Continental's Application to Fly to Chengdu, China: Airline Now Must Await Approval of Chinese Government

September 6, 2013, 4:01 p.m. ET

By  SUSAN CAREY
The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday approved an application by United Continental Holdings Inc. to begin nonstop flights next June from San Francisco to Chengdu, China, that nation's fourth-largest city and one of the fastest-growing with more than 200 Fortune 500 companies having a presence there.

According to a DOT docket item, United's Aug. 29 application was approved. The Chicago-based airline now must await approval from the Chinese government, a DOT spokesman said.

United intends to offer thrice-weekly flights using a Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner plane. The new nonstop flight will shave nearly four hours off the typical travel time between the two cities, which normally requires a connection. United said Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in the southwest part of China, will be the ninth city the U.S. airline serves in Asia from its San Francisco hub.

Overseas airlines increasingly are targeting large cities in China's interior, because of congestion at the big gateway airports in Shanghai and Beijing and due to the increase of foreign companies setting up shop away from the coast. British Airways, a unit of International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A., is slated to begin flights to Chengdu from London later this month.

Nonstop international flights to such "secondary" cities are being aided by the arrival of new, fuel-efficient aircraft such as the two-engine Boeing 787. The plane, which can fly up to 8,000 nautical miles, has just 219 seats in two classes in United's configuration, meaning it can span long distances but doesn't have too many seats for the demand on the route.

China's Hainan Airlines Co., which this week launched flights from Beijing to Chicago, plans to use 787s on the route starting in early November, replacing larger, four-engine Airbus A340s.

Source:  http://online.wsj.com