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Reader Michelle writes:

I got an e-mail from American Airlines, asking me to support their Chicago to Beijing flight. This is so weird! When has an airline ever written asking for this before? Does public support of a proposed route really matter or does it only matter because it’s China?

I got the same e-mail. And a day later, I got a similar e-mail from Northwest, asking me to support their bids for Detroit-Shanghai for 2007 and Detroit-Beijing for 2009. Other e-mails are bound to roll in, from Delta, US Airways, Continental, and United.

Within the United States, domestic airlines are allowed to simply start service to any cities they like. But for international service, airlines require permission from both governments of the countries they fly to and from.

Incidentally, that’s why airlines lobby for “open skies” agreements, which allow them to forgo the permission process, and let them just fly from anywhere in country A to anywhere in country B.

China is a huge market, and everyone wants a piece. And for now, there is not yet an open skies agreement between the U.S. and China. (The two governments are negotiating one off and on.) But an interim agreement means that US-flag carriers can start one flight to China in 2007 and two flights in 2009. The Department of Transportation has to pick the winners of these lucrative routes, and that’s why you’re being asked to voice your support.

The last time the airlines lobbied like this was in late 2006. United Airlines won the Washington-Beijing “capital-to-capital” route.

So whose bid should you support? I have no idea. I have personally never — not once — expressed support for any airline’s bid for service. The proposed routes tend to give one airline a monopoly or duopoly on a specific route, and that’s not exactly consumer-friendly. Remember, the airlines want that route so they can make money, which, as for-profit corporations, they should. But that doesn’t mean it’s in your immediate interest either.

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