Continental Airlines flight took off from Newark Liberty International Airport bound for Beijing on June 15, marking the US carrier's first and only non-stop flight between New York and Beijing.

Continental Airlines' introduction of daily non-stop services between Beijing and New York last week is just one of many items of planned expansion by the US airline into China's fledging aviation market.

The move, the first by an American passenger airline to initiate non-stop flights to China after the a Sino-US aviation agreement was entered into in July 2004, breaks the market monopoly of United and Northwest Airlines, the only US carriers serving the China market for the past 20 years.

"If the bookings we have received already are any indication of the demand we'll experience for this flight, it is clear that this is a flight that the market has been waiting for, and strongly needed," Chief Executive Larry Kellner said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the June 15 maiden flight.

In another ambitious plan, Continental has formally submitted an application to the US Department of Transportation to operate non-stop flights between New York and Shanghai. If approved, flights will be introduced in March 2007, Kellner told reporters.

American Airlines has already won federal approval to begin direct flights from Chicago to Shanghai from April 2 next year.

Facing intense competition from low-cost carriers within the United States, major US airlines are shifting their focus to international routes in search of profits.

And their entry into the Chinese market was made possible thanks to a landmark air transport liberalization pact signed between the two countries in July 2004.

The agreement allows for a five-fold increase in the number of weekly flights between the two countries, that is, from the previous limit of 54 weekly round trip flights to 249 by the end of a six-year phase-in period.

It also allows five additional airlines from each country to serve the US-China market. The United States might name one additional all-cargo airline, while China might name either a passenger or cargo airline, to go into service this year.

But domestic airlines have been slow to take advantage of the liberalization of the US-China aviation market in the face of competition from their US rivals.

"Domestic airlines do not have the competitive advantages of international air networks as their US rivals do, which constitutes a factor leading to the loss of passenger sources," said Zhang Lianbiao, a professor from the Civil Aviation University of China.

At the same time, small fleet deployment also hinders them from benefiting from the advantage of the liberalization of Sino-US air lines, he said.

To improve their services, major domestic airlines such as Air China and China Southern Airlines have invested a lot in purchasing aircraft and updating cabin facilities.

Last month, China's flagship carrier Air China injected 688 million yuan (US$83.1 million) to refurbish seats in the business-and-first-class cabins on 15 of its aircraft.

Some of the refurbished aircraft will be used to fly the major Sino-US route, according to a press official from the airline company.

(China Daily June 20, 2005)