DOT Approves U.S. Carriers Rights for China Flights

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edEx Corp., UPS Inc., Northwest Airlines and Polar Air Cargo were each formally awarded three additional cargo flights to China starting in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

ir cargo shipments always have a trucking component, since air carriers use trucks for local and regional ground transportation.

Both governments exercised great foresight in agreeing to more frequencies each year,” said Jeffrey Erickson, chief executive officer of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Polar’s parent company.

The new flights were made available by an aviation deal signed July 24 by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Chinese Minister of Civil Aviation Yang Yuanyuan. It called for an increase in weekly U.S.-China flights for each country's carriers to 249 from 54 over six years.

n October, DOT awarded Polar its first nine flights to China, while FedEx and UPS received 12 additional weekly flights and Northwest received six.

DOT also said in its Friday release that American Airlines and Continental Airlines were granted new passenger flights beginning in 2006.