AA: Slot Gridlock Delays Chicago-Beijing Launch

American Airlines said it would suspend today's planned launch of service from Chicago to Beijing until next week, pending the resolution of problems in securing slots at Beijing Capital International Airport.

American said it plans to launch the daily nonstop service on May 4, and in the meantime, vowed to rebook customers, "assist them in getting to their destination," or offer them a full refund or flight credit. "American's planned flights were sold with the reasonable expectation that, in common with industry practice, viable slots would be confirmed in time for the scheduled start date of the new service, which had been approved by the governments of both the United States and China," American said.

Noting that it applied for the appropriate slot permits in October 2009, the carrier in a statement today said, "Simply put, American has not received commercially viable landing and take-off slots for Beijing Capital International Airport from Chinese aviation authorities." The carrier plans to resolve those issues in the next week.