He Said, She Said Gives DOT Something To Mull Over

The mud's flying between airlines applying for what could be a highly lucrative route to China, and we're not talking about the coffee they're serving in coach.

You wouldn't think airlines would get so upset about flights to China, how many people are going anyway? But the reality is China is poised for the kind of growth in its air travel industry similar to that experienced by America and western Europe over the past few decades. And let's face it, there aren't that many routes left to fly!

The US Transportation Department reviews applications from each carrier before awarding overseas routes, and it's kind of amazing how much paper and ink gets used to defame the competition.

So what are they saying?

Well, Continental says its competitors have all dropped routes to Asia in the past ten years. American defended its decision to pull out by highlighting United's and Northwest's similar decisions, the everyone's-doing-it defense. And besides, says American, Northwest and United already have US-China routes... so there.

While conveniently forgetting its own decision to drop routes, United told the DOT American and Northwest shouldn't get new US-China routes because they both previously dropped routes to Asia. United gets the best-selective-memory award for that one...

Northwest says its Detroit-China proposal will provide much better connection service than other airports in the US, specifically D/FW. Northwest believes American's connections in D/FW are "absurdly circuitous." Apparently none of their executives have gone through Minneapolis-St. Paul lately.

DOT says it will award the routes in whatever fashion best maximizes public benefit. At least we can all rest assured the professionals over there will have their noses tuned up so they can detect all the bull.

Considering the number of lawyers likely involved in writing the proposals...

FMI: www.dot.gov