ONE of Peter Philipp Wingsoe s employees at a Los Angeles marketing firm recently waited five days for a business class ticket on a United Airlines jet home from Beijing because planes were so packed.
Those crowds are spurring United Continental Holdings Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc. and other U.S. carriers to expand flights to Asia, lured by economic growth in China that is triple the U.S. rate and new access to an airport nearer to downtown Tokyo.
It s been quite difficult, particularly getting last-minute flights, said Wingsoe, 38, who makes about a half-dozen trips to Asia each year as managing partner at Entertainment Fusion Group. There s nothing open. Last year we could call on the day and get on, no problem.
Wingsoe s travels make him part of a surge in Asia/Pacific air traffic. The region s 10.4 percent increase through September from a year earlier outpaced a 6.7 percent gain in North America and more than doubled Europe s 4.4 percent, according to the International Air Transport Association.
United, which leads U.S. airlines in traffic to and from China, plans to start Los Angeles-Shanghai flights in May. American Airlines plans to add a service on the same route and may fly to Hong Kong and Guangzhou as well. The economy in the world s most populous nation expanded at an annual rate of 9.6 percent last quarter, compared with 3.1 percent in the United States.
China continues to be on fire, Jim Compton, chief revenue officer for Chicago-based United, said on an Oct. 21 conference call.
Delta said yesterday it would add a twice-weekly service between its largest hub in Atlanta and Shanghai in June, with five flights a week from Detroit to Beijing beginning in July. Tokyo-Guangzhou service would be introduced in April, the carrier said.
Flights from Seattle to Beijing and Detroit to Hong Kong were ramping up very well since their June debut, while the Japan-Hawaii service was posting especially strong results, Delta president Ed Bastian said on an October conference call.
Hawaiian Holdings Inc. s Hawaiian Airlines is also adding Asia flights, with service starting today between its hometown of Honolulu and Tokyo. Next up is Seoul in January, according to Hawaiian, the 11th-biggest U.S. airline by traffic.
They re jockeying with carriers based in the region, including Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Hong Kong s biggest airline. Singapore Airlines boosted a business-class-only flight to Los Angeles to seven days a week from five Oct. 5, and did the same with a Singapore-Moscow-Houston flight.
Profit for the Asia-Pacific airline industry probably would be US$5.2 billion this year, more than double an earlier forecast of US$2.2 billion, IATA said in September.
China service was among the casualties for U.S. airlines as they cut seats in the recession, with service deferred to cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou. The eight largest carriers posted net losses of US$15.1 billion in 2008 and US$3.56 billion in 2009.
The group s return to profit, with third-quarter net income of US$2.44 billion, heralded a fresh round of expansion, said David Swierenga, president of consultant AeroEcon in Round Rock, Texas, and a former chief economist at the Air Transport Association trade group. (SD-Agencies)
