American Airlines Seeks Delay In Chicago-to-Beijing Flight
By KATHY SHWIFF
August 29, 2008 5:14 p.m.

American Airlines has asked the U.S. Department of Transportation for a waiver that will allow it to delay for one year its launch of nonstop service between Chicago O'Hare International Airport and Beijing.

Citing the high cost of fuel and other problems facing the struggling airline industry, American, owned by AMR Corp., asked to start the flight on April 4, 2010. It had planned to launch service April 9, 2009.

The government has granted similar requests from US Airways Group Inc., Northwest Airlines Corp. and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines.

US Airways has delayed by one year its planned launch of a 13-hour daily flight linking Philadelphia and Beijing, without giving up its right to the route. The carrier has said fuel increases would raise the cost of running the once-daily Beijing flight to more than $90 million, from $50 million when it applied for the route a few months earlier.

Northwest received permission to suspend for a year seven weekly all-cargo flights it was operating between the U.S. and Guangzhou, China. United won a year's reprieve on its planned launch of San Francisco-Guangzhou flights.

Access to routes between the U.S. and China is highly competitive because air service between the two countries is restricted by bilateral agreements.

The reason long flights are so vulnerable to the mix of high fuel prices and weak airline traffic is a combination of physics and economics. A passenger on a 15-hour flight uses more fuel for each mile of the trip than someone on an eight-hour trip, but the airfare per mile generally doesn't rise proportionally.

When fuel is cheap and traffic strong, airlines can absorb the difference.
AMR's shares fell 1.2% to $10.21 in after-hours trading.