United Airlines is seeking to bolster its transpacific dominance with a newly proposed route to China from the West Coast of the USA. 

The Chicago-based carrier filed on 2 December with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) an application to operate thrice-weekly, year-round flights from Los Angeles International airport to Beijing.

The proposed flights would be operated with Boeing 787-9 aircraft and launch 1 May, per DOT approval. United’s website shows that the flights are not yet available for booking. 

United requests “seasonal flexibility to adjust capacity to potential fluctuations in demand” in its application. 

Airlines cut most flights to Asia in March 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the globe. China took an especially hard-line stance on cross-border travel but finally eased off its “zero Covid” policy in January 2023. 

However, commercial air traffic between China and the USA remains suppressed amid frosty diplomatic relations between the global powers. Frequencies were on the upswing prior to Russia’s war in Ukraine but have been further limited by restrictions on flying through Russian airspace. 

Prior to the pandemic, United served Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu with numerous weekly connections from its hubs at San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Chicago and Newark.

United’s filing notes that the US airline industry remains below the DOT’s current cap of 50 weekly frequencies to China, and that its proposed flights do not impact the “agreed upon level of flying between the two countries”. United holds rights for up to 28 weekly flights between China and the USA.

”While United has certain frequencies that are not currently operating due to the department’s well-reasoned and well-managed slow reinstatement of flights between the US and China and the US industry’s inability to operate across Russia, United looks forward to restarting these routes when conditions allow,” the carrier says. 

The carrier says that the proposed route is in the public interest in that it would provide “consumers and shippers an additional gateway” to China’s capital. The filing also specifies that the proposed flights out of Los Angeles would ”operate at opposite ends of the day” than its daily service between San Francisco International airport and Beijing.

Additionally, United would down-gauge the aircraft flying the San Francisco-Beijing route to a 777-200. 

United urges the DOT to “act promptly” to approve its application so it can begin marketing the Los Angeles-Beijing route and make “final operating plans”. 

Air China currently operates four-times weekly flights between Beijing and Los Angeles.