=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2002/07/26/f= inancial0626EDT0014.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, July 26, 2002 (AP) Potential East Coast market could help Air China's Beijing-New York direct = flight TED ANTHONY, Associated Press Writer (07-26) 03:26 PDT BEIJING (AP) -- Air China's new direct service between Beijing and New York City could increase the flagship carrier's prestige while tapping a vast pool of overseas Chinese on the U.S. East Coast, analysts said Friday, a day after the thrice-weekly flights were announced. Political concerns -- especially the need to move Chinese government officials to and from America's largest city -- also may be playing a role in launching the new service, which begins Sept. 27. "There's such a large ethnic population on the East Coast, especially New York. That Chinese diaspora will help underwrite air services to China," said Peter Harbison, managing director at the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, based in Sydney. "It's important in respect to China's need to expand the links with the more dynamic East Coast," he said. China's new World Trade Organization membership and its desire to increase tourism are expected to create more travelers to and from Beijing in coming months. Air China decided to launch the direct service after noticing a greater demand for travel between Beijing and New York City, a spokesman for the Chinese flagship carrier said Friday. He gave his name only as Mr. Wang. "We're starting these flights because the market demanded it," he said. United Airlines and Northwest Airlines are the major American carriers currently operating out of Beijing. Air China said its Boeing 747-400 aircraft would leave at 2 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and land at JFK at 3:30 p.m. the same day -- a 13-hour flight that uses the "Great Circle Route" that traverses the Arctic. Return flights will leave JFK at 5:30 p.m. and arrive in Beijing at 7 p.m. the next day. Air China has scheduled a test flight for Aug. 16. Jim Eckes, managing director of the Hong Kong-based consulting agency Indoswiss Aviation, said the Chinese government may also be pushing the new service -- because, he says, various officials, bankers and diplomats may want a quick way to New York. "Air China is considered somewhat as the chosen instrument of China, the de facto national carrier. They have a sort of mandate to fly to other key cities in the world," Eckes said. "My feeling is it was a decision made more for political reasons than for commercial reasons." Continental Airlines flies direct between Hong Kong and New York. China Airlines, Taiwan's national airline, has weekly roundtrip flights from Taipei to New York, but there are no commercial flights between the mainland and Taiwan, which are uneasy rivals. Thrice-weekly flights typically attract more tourists than the business travelers that the airline industry covets, because people traveling for work typically need daily service. Eckes said East Coast Chinese may flock to the service if tickets are cheap enough. But he said Air China is not renowned for its service. "A lot of people in China right now have a right to pick a non-Chinese airline in international travel," he said. "And anybody who lives in Beijing knows the weaknesses of Air China." =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 AP