New Gateways Increase International Options : Airlines: No longer are overseas flights limited to major U.S. cities such as Los Angeles and New York. Now the public has more choices than ever.

Last October, Jeffrey Shane, an assistant secretary for policy and international affairs at the U.S. Department of Transportation, announced that the DOT was about to initiate one of the most significant developments in overseas air travel.

Simply put, the DOT proposed to open additional U.S. cities to foreign airlines, reduce America’s protectionist stance on international air transportation, and dramatically increase competition over virtually every major--and minor--air route between the United States and foreign countries.

Under terms of the proposal, foreign airlines could establish gateways in such cities as Denver, Philadelphia, Charlotte, N.C.; Tampa, Fla.; Portland, Ore.; Phoenix and many others not normally associated with offering nonstop international flights.

The possibilities seemed almost endless, as long as a market was available to support the flights. It meant that an airline such as Lufthansa could start flying between Tampa and Frankfurt, West Germany and American could begin service between Chicago and Milan, Italy.

Why the need for such a policy? Most airline industry observers, in both the United States and overseas, point to the expected economic integration of Western Europe in 1992, the growing number of global alliances being formed by European and Asian airlines, and a potential explosion in growth in new airline destinations.

The DOT policy permits foreign airlines to apply for service to U.S. cities that lack nonstop or one-stop service to their home countries.

In the eight months since the DOT opened the door to foreign airlines, the response from overseas has been nothing less than overwhelming, and the DOT has begun approving a number of the applications.

The choices being presented to travelers is staggering. Just about every European airline, and most major Asian airlines, have applied to fly to some surprising U.S. destinations. Almost immediately, Lufthansa announced plans to fly to Tampa, Charlotte and Portland.

KLM announced that it would fly from Amsterdam to Baltimore. Alitalia announced service to Boston and Miami.

Varig announced inauguration of Chicago-Rio de Janeiro nonstop flights. Mexicana Airlines commenced nonstop flights between Denver and Mexico City. British Airways announced New York City-Glasgow, Scotland, service starting Aug. 3.

On July 3, Air France begins flying between Newark, N.J. and Paris-Orly Airport. Newark is also the recipient of a major increase in flights by Lufthansa. The German airline has introduced 17 weekly flights between New Jersey and three airports: Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologne/Bonn.

In the United States, American carriers are reciprocating in a very big way.

The big three airlines--American, United and Delta--are battling to become three big airlines overseas.

The most aggressive, American, has expanded rapidly and globally, adding flights in Europe, Latin America, the South Pacific and, indirectly, Asia.

In February, American began flying to Australia and New Zealand. Then the airline purchased Eastern Airlines’ Latin American routes, and will soon begin flying to 20 Central and South American cities.

American will now fly 145 weekly flights to Europe this summer, compared with 119 last year. In the process, the airline has announced plans to increase the size of its fleet by a whopping 50% in the next five years, to 759 planes.

And in the Asian market, American wants desperately to fly to Hong Kong. But it doesn’t yet have the route.

Instead, it has signed a special marketing and seats agreement with Cathay Pacific, which launches its own new nonstop service between Los Angeles and Hong Kong next Sunday. While the flight is operated by Cathay Pacific, American has bought 38% of the seats on each flight.

United is now flying between Chicago and Frankfurt, and Frankfurt and Washington. And in August, United will be flying between Chicago and Paris.

TWA now flies between Newark and Paris and Los Angeles and Paris. The airline has also started nonstop service between JFK and Barcelona, Spain.

Pan Am now flies nonstops from New York City to Helsinki, Finland.

And it was recently announced that four additional U.S. carriers will be allowed to serve the Soviet Union as of next April.

Early this month, the DOT approved new USAir service between Philadelphia and Paris, using Boeing 767 aircraft.

The flights, which also require approval of the French government, will start next year. Just nine days ago, USAir commenced nonstop service between Pittsburgh and Frankfurt. The DOT also approved Delta’s Cincinnati-Paris route application.

And the French government, which traditionally has been slow to grant flight approvals, is showing signs of opening the doors to its air route borders. It recently gave United Airlines approval for flights between Chicago and Paris.

Delta has also announced Atlanta-Amsterdam service, and has applied for authority to fly nonstop between Atlanta and Berlin.

In the Asian market, America West is bidding for a Las Vegas/Phoenix/Honolulu/Tokyo route. Continental has announced service between Seattle and Nagoya, Japan, for 1991. Additional gateways to the Pacific may be Denver, Nashville, Tenn., and Cincinnati.

Already, United is flying San Francisco-Taipei. Northwest is flying Honolulu to Seoul, and inaugurated Los Angeles-Taipei service June 1. TWA has applied for St. Louis-Tokyo, Delta and Pan Am for Los Angeles-Tokyo.

Thanks to the new policies, as well as to new long-range equipment, the routings and international city pairings are virtually limitless.

In future months, look for possible announcements of such routes as Houston-Tokyo, Phoenix-London, Denver-Paris and Atlanta-Madrid.

What do all these new routes mean?

To be sure, more convenience to passengers who happen to live in the U.S. cities announced as new destinations. No longer will they have to endure additional connecting travel abroad via other U.S. airports, or suffer through the possible ordeal of on-line air traffic delays and congestion.

On the ground, it could also mean a streamlining of passenger processing.

For example, passengers aboard a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Baltimore stand an excellent chance of clearing U.S. Customs in Baltimore quickly, since arriving international flight volume at that airport will still be relatively light.

This can also mean passengers who want to avoid the customs madness at other, traditionally crowded airports such as JFK and LAX might opt to fly through one of the new gateway cities, clear U.S. Customs there and make a domestic flight connection.

It also can mean that, in the short run, airlines initiating these routes will lower existing fares to promote their new U.S. cities. The new routes can only mean new competition against more traditional routes.

Thus, until strong passenger demand fills those seats on the new routes, it should be a buyers’ market for overseas flights.