Northwest Airlines applauds the U.S. Government's success in achieving a major liberalization of the U.S.-China market. The new agreement opens the door for important new routes including Detroit-Shanghai, Detroit-Beijing and Minneapolis/St. Paul-Shanghai which Northwest urgently wants to offer its customers.

Detroit is the largest and most effective U.S. airline hub for service to Asia, and the new services proposed by Northwest will benefit more than 100 U.S. cities with convenient and direct service to Asia. Likewise, Minneapolis/St. Paul is ideally situated along the Great Circle route to China, is a major hub for Northwest, and is an important business center in the Upper Midwest of the U.S.

Northwest urges the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to immediately establish a proceeding to allocate the new China rights that will become available between now and 2009. Despite the important advancement in our aviation relationship with China, interest in new routes will again outstrip supply, and it is important for the DOT and interested carriers to have adequate time to plan and implement new services.