American Airlines will make a bid to fly a new non-stop daily route between Chicago and Beijing in 2009, the company announced on June 29. Under a Sino-US aviation deal signed in May, US carriers can add four daily roundtrip flights between the United States and China in 2009.

The US Department of Transportation decides which airlines to award the flights. If the bid is successful, AA will use a 245-seat Boeing 777 aircraft with a three-class configuration, and will start the flight on March 25, 2009.