Air Route Authority Between The United States and The People's Republic of China - 2004 Agreement

2004 Agreement

A new agreement was signed July 2004

The agreement allowed each country’s carriers to serve any city in the other country. In practice, service between the two countries occurs between three large Chinese cities and a few cities in the U.S. Prior to the agreement, Chinese carriers were limited to 12 U.S. cities, and U.S. passenger carriers to only five Chinese cities. The agreement permitted unlimited code-sharing between U.S. and Chinese airlines, which had previously been limited to certain cities.

At the time of the agreement, there were plans for additional negotiations to begin in 2006 which led to another agreement in 2007.

The 2004 agreement led to the 2005 expansion of flights between the two countries as well as new service by Northwest Airlines from Tokyo to Guangzhou, which began on November 1, 2004, operated using Boeing 757 aircraft. (The route was planned to be resumed on July 6, 2011, by Delta, however, the airline indefinitely postponed the route.) United Airlines began non-stop Chicago–Shanghai flights on October 31, 2004.