Air China Limited yesterday (February 2) submitted an emergency application to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT), asking the DoT to approve the cancellation of all of its existing U.S.-China routes and replace them with two routes: Beijing Capital (PEK)-Los Angeles (LAX)-San Francisco (SFO) and Beijing Capital (PEK)-New York Kennedy (JFK)-Washington Dulles (IAD). Air China said the application is based on maintaining air links between China and the United States in the most cost-effective way possible under the novel coronavirus situation. The filing is below.
https://www.uscreditcards101.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Emergency_Application_of_Air_China_Limited.pdf
The application asks the Department of Transportation to approve Air China to operate these two routes for no less than 180 days, providing both passenger and cargo service, but without carrying domestic passengers or cargo on the two U.S. domestic segments. The two routes would begin service on February 11 and 12, respectively. The application requests approval for 4 weekly flights on the West Coast route and 3 weekly flights on the East Coast route.
The application states that both routes would be operated with Boeing 777-300 aircraft. However, according to an internal Air China notice obtained by the author, the West Coast route would be operated with a Boeing 787-9 instead. It is not yet clear whether this is because the final approval conditions from the Department of Transportation differ slightly from the application. We will update promptly.