United launches first flight from D.C. to Beijing

CHANTILLY, Va. — One month after winning federal approval for a coveted nonstop route to China, United Airlines launched its inaugural flight Wednesday from Washington’s Dulles International Airport to Beijing to the applause of passengers.

“Flights from the United States to China are always packed,” said Matthew Alesse of Buffalo, N.Y., whose work in the medical-device industry takes him to China about four times a year. Passengers say more flights are needed as commerce between the nations grows.

Previously, he would fly to China through Chicago, where bad weather sometimes led to delays.

Direct routes between the U.S. and China are strictly rationed by international agreement, in part because of busy airports in China and a desire to protect domestic airlines there from competition.

“China is a lucrative and growing market that is tightly restricted in numbers of flights,” said Mark Treadaway, vice president for air service development at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which runs Dulles and Ronald Reagan National airports.

When a new slot opened up last year, airlines and airports waged what airports authority President and CEO James Bennett called “an old-fashioned, junkyard dog fight” to land the new route.

Northwest wanted to fly from Detroit to Shanghai. AMR Corp.’s American Airlines wanted to fly to Beijing from Dallas, and Continental Airlines Inc. touted a Newark-to-Shanghai route.

United will use a 347-seat Boeing 747-400 on the route. Roundtrip prices ranged from about $1,000 for economy class seats to $14,000 for first class on the 13 1/2 -hour flight.