United Airlines, based in Chicago, and the number two US carrier, has introduced two daily long haul routes from Washington, Beijing and Rome. With the new bilateral agreement between US and Europe due to be implemented next March, United has also applied to the US Department of Transport for authority to increase its current code-share arrangement to a proper alliance allowing passengers seamless travel between the UK and domestic points in the States. This type of arrangement is already in place between KLM and Northwest.
The Beijing service comes about following months of intense competition between the various American carrier and will be flown using a three-class Boeing 747-400. From the US capital the flight leaves soon after midday and arrives in Beijing 14:00 the following day with a flight time of 13h5m.
In the other direction the 18:30 evening departure arrives at Dulles International Airport just one hour later local time. Through its code-shares with Air China and Shanghai Airlines, the airline is able to offer a network of 16 onward connections in the People”s Republic.
United chairman, president and CEO Glenn Tilton, said: "Connecting for the first time two of the world's most important cities is a historic occasion with great geopolitical, commercial and cultural promise for citizens of both the US and China.”
The daily new Rome service is the only non-stop scheduled flight between the Italian and American capitals. It is flown by a Boeing 777 configured with first, business, economy plus and economy. Here the flight time is just over 8.5 hrs (one hour more in the other direction) with the inbound flight a mid-morning service arriving mid-afternoon.