United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) is planning to launch direct services to Guangzhou as the first American carrier after its proposed joint venture with Air China (CA, Beijing Capital) takes shape, Managing Director (Greater China and Korea) Walter Dias told Forbes.
"It’s not tomorrow and it’s not next year but at some time in the future, I would not be surprised to see us with a non-stop service from San Francisco," Dias said.
According to the ch-aviation capacities module, in mainland China, the carrier currently flies 4x daily to Beijing Capital (daily each from New York Newark, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare, and San Francisco) and 5x daily to Shanghai Pudong (2x daily from San Francisco, daily each from Newark, Chicago, and Los Angeles International), as well as 3x weekly from San Francisco to Chengdu Shuangliu.
Currently, the only airline flying directly from Guangzhou to the United States is China Southern Airlines (CZ, Guangzhou), which operates 8x weekly to Los Angeles, 14x weekly to New York JFK, and 9x weekly to San Francisco (including 3x weekly via Wuhan).
Both United and Air China, Star Alliance partners, said in the past that they would be interested in a transpacific joint venture, although no firm decisions have been taken yet.
