But Many Say Chicago Stopover Will Doom Bid

A concession to its pilots union on a proposed nonstop route from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Beijing may take American Airlines out of the running in its competition with other US carriers for the service.

American originally wanted to fly nonstop from DFW to Beijing and back. The Allied Pilots Association, however, took parent company AMR to task for the length of the outbound flights, which would exceed the maximum pilot work limit of 16 hours by about a half hour due to prevailing winds.

As Aero-News reported, the union offered a concession agreement on the route, in exchange for several perks such as guaranteed pay. American replied that those perks should have been negotiated during regular contract talks. Neither side would budge.

In the end, American submitted a revised proposal Friday, changing its application to include a stopover in Chicago to change out flight crews before continuing on the westward journey to Beijing.

Analysts say that probably spells doom for American for two reasons. One, the change comes late in the application process; final bids were to be submitted by October 31. And secondly, the outbound stopover makes American's proposal less competitive with those submitted by Continental, United and Northwest, all of which are offering nonstop service.

"It's dead in the water," said airline consultant Darryl Jenkins to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I thought they had a reasonable chance, but now it's zilch. It's just really sad. It's got to be a tough day at American Airlines."

The Boyd Group's Mike Boyd agreed, stating "There's virtually no way American can get it now."

American's proposed return flight from Beijing to DFW -- aided by the jet stream -- would come in at under 15 hours on average, and thus would not require a stopover.

Executives at American concede their weaker position compared to other airlines vying for the route... and placed the blame on the airline's current contract with its pilots.

"Unfortunately, given the circumstances of flying time, our current agreement [with pilots] doesn't allow us to fly directly from DFW to Beijing," said spokesman Charley Wilson.

AMR Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey asserted American's bid is still competitive.

"Even with the modification, it bears repeating that American's route request will offer the maximum public benefits for the valuable and limited opportunity available in the US-China market and will provide much-needed competitive balance," Arpey said in a prepared statement.

The lone route up for bid is the result of a new aviation treaty between the US and China, allowing one carrier to begin new service between the countries in 2007. Continental Airlines has proposed flying from Newark, NJ to Beijing; Northwest, from Detroit, MI to Shanghai.

United Airlines has submitted new service from Washington, DC to Beijing; it already flies from Chicago to Beijing.

The Department of Transportation is slated to make its decision on which airline gets the bid early next year. Another route opens up for 2008, that will also be offered to cargo airlines and other carriers -- such as Delta -- that don't already offer service to China.

FMI: www.aa.com, www.dot.gov