US DoT policy on China Route Awards - puzzling to say the least

The Government always moves in mysterious ways. This time it is downright screwy.

Effectively the government has decided to consolidate the 2007 and 2009 China route awards. Thus creating a strange situation that would mean that United Airlines automatically gets the 2008 award yet the competition for 2007 and 2009 are hotly contested. For a learned discourse on this go to the Aviation Week website: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=comm&id=news/NDCH07177.xml

However logic would normally suggest that the route awards should be engaged by priority of value proposition. Not so it would appear. Only if you choose the right award date process does it work. Again go figure.

So why the DoT has decided to do this seems to be that the US Dept of Transportation is trying to outdo the European Directorates in bureaucratic nonsense.

If all else fails give it to Maxjet so I can fly from my favorite airport of Seattle on a reasonable seat.

oops that sounds like a special interest statement. Sorry........