A
week after requesting rights to the Boston-Shanghai route, Hainan
Airlines was back at the Transportation Department this week filing for two
additional segments: San Jose-Beijing and Seattle-Shanghai.
The privately owned Chinese carrier said it
would like to begin service on the new routes in the second quarter.
In its DOT filing, Hainan said its San Jose service would be the first
U.S.-China service direct from the heart of Silicon Valley. It proposed to
serve the route with five weekly nonstops using Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. For
Seattle-Shanghai, the carrier would operate four times weekly with Airbus
A330-200 aircraft.
Still pending is the airline’s proposal to serve Boston-Shanghai. Combined with its existing operations to Beijing from Seattle, Chicago
and Boston, the three new routes would give the carrier a total of six
U.S.-China segments.