China clears Jet Airways' Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route

New Delhi: In sync with a peaceful relay of the Beijing Olympic torch through the streets of New Delhi, which elicited a grateful response from authorities in Beijing, China also sanctioned permission for Jet Airways to commence its much-awaited service to Shanghai, and onwards to San Francisco.

Jet received the operating permit on Thursday, which now allows the carrier fifth freedom rights to operate the Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route.

An agreement allows both countries to operate 49 flights a week by each side. India recently cleared Chinese cargo carrier Great Wall's request to fly to Chennai as well as Mumbai. It expected that, as a reciprocal gesture, China would clear Jet Airways request to fly the Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route.

This however did not occur, forcing Jet to postpone the launch of this service repeatedly. Indian civil aviation officials rationalise that the delay occurred probably because Jet not only wanted to fly to China, but also carry traffic from there to the US.

The clearance of Jet's request to operate this route makes it perhaps the only foreign airline to have the  rights to carry passengers from China to a third country.

However, the long wait means that, very likely, Jet will now be able to operationalise the new route only by mid-June.