Foreign airlines are cashing in on the rapid increase in overseas travel bookings to China, and picking up the pace for market expansion in China.

The world's largest passenger carrier, American Airlines, will launch its first nonstop flight from Chicago to Shanghai on April 2.

A round-trip ticket will be priced at only 2,999 yuan (US$373) between April 3 and April 30. Two Boeing 777 airliners will service this route with cabin assistants who can speak Chinese, and a menu that includes Chinese food.

As the result of a Sino-US aviation pact signed in July 2004, four US airliners to date have been authorized to provide direct services between the two countries.

Lufthansa, Germany's flagship airline, is also pressing ahead with expansion plans. Since March 26, Lufthansa has increased the number of direct flights between Germany and China from 43 to 52 a week. There are daily direct services from Frankfurt to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Australia's Qantas Airways, the world's second oldest airline, re-launched its non-stop service from Sydney to Beijing on January 9 with three flights a week. Qantas expects to offer daily flights to and from Beijing and Shanghai within the next two years.

Air traffic between Australia and China grew 22 percent last year, and Tourism Australia has forecast that more than one million Chinese tourists will travel to Australia annually over the next 10 years.

(China.org.cn by Li Shen, March 22, 2006)