Northwest Airlines announced Monday that it will add a third weekly Shanghai-Detroit nonstop flight beginning April 1, 2001 and a third weekly Shanghai-US all-cargo freighter flight also effective on April 1, 2001.
John Watkins, vice president of Northwest Airlines and general manager of the airline's China service, said, "Shanghai holds a key position as China's commercial center, and with China's entry to the WTO in the near future, and strong forecast economic growth, demand for cargo as well as business and leisure transportation will continue to increase. Northwest Airlines'expanded nonstop cargo and passenger service will help to satisfy the needs of businesses and individual travelers alike."
Northwest will then operate 16 weekly round-trip flights from China to the U.S from this spring. In addition to its three weekly Shanghai-Detroit nonstop passenger flights, Northwest's spring 2001 schedule will also include four weekly Beijing-Detroit nonstop flights and three weekly flights each from Shanghai and Beijing to the US via Northwest's Tokyo hub.
Northwest inaugurated two weekly Shanghai-Detroit nonstop passenger flights on April 6, 2000, using Boeing's 747-400 aircraft.
Meanwhile, Northwest's strong China-US passenger flight schedule has been enhanced by a new code-share service on China domestic routes with alliance partner Air China.
Beginning December 19, Northwest's codes appear on Air China's flights connecting Beijing with Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Xi'an, Nanjing, Qingdao, Chengdu and Xiamen.
Air China has operated a code-share service with Northwest on trans-Pacific and US domestic routes since October 1998. The new China domestic code-share service makes Northwest the first foreign airline to offer the code-share service to Chinese cities.
Air China is China's largest international airline. Its flight network covers 114 routes, including 43 international routes and 71 domestic routes. Air China operates more than 1,000 flights weekly and serves 29 cities in 19 countries and most major cities in China.
(Xinhua 01/15/2001)
