American Airlines will use the Boeing 777 for its new Chicago-Beijing service.
The Texas-based carrier cited a disagreement with Chinese aviation authorities over take-off and landing times in Beijing and rescheduled the new service for May 4 as it tries to resolve the dispute.
The cancellation of the flight is expected to delay American’s efforts to seize the upper hand in the world’s fastest-growing commercial aviation market, which is a key driver in the global aviation industry’s recovery.
But the new route will remain grounded if American cannot reach an agreement with Chinese aviation officials about “commercially viable operating slots”, the airline said in a statement.
“I don’t want to speculate what might happen. But there is the possibility that more cancellations will happen if we do not get this resolved,” said Theo Panagiotoulias, American’s vice-president for the Pacific.
American had scheduled the Boeing 777 flight to arrive at Beijing Capital International Airport at 1:55 pm on Tuesday and depart Beijing later in the afternoon.
It said Chinese authorities only allowed the flight to land at 2:20 am and depart at 4:20 am from Beijing, Asia’s busiest airport.
“Simply put, American has not received commercially viable landing and takeoff slots,” the statement said.
The airline said it is currently rebooking customers on other flights to get them to their destinations. Customers are also being offered full refunds or the opportunity to travel on American at a later date.
American had sold about 240 seats on the inaugural flight from Chicago to Beijing and about the same number on the return flight, said Panagiotoulias. – read more at People’s Daily Online…
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