US Airways made public its hostile bid for Delta on November 15. It increased the merger offer, which would have created the world's biggest airline, to US$5 billion in cash and 89.5 million US Airways shares, on January 10.

The bid was withdrawn on January 31, after Delta's official unsecured creditors committee endorsed the airline's plan to leave court supervision as an independent company.

UAL Corp's United Airlines won US approval in January for the first nonstop flight from Washington to Beijing, beating out AMR Corp's American Airlines, Northwest Airlines Corp and Continental Airlines Inc.

American, United, Continental and Northwest, four of the five-largest US carriers, already have US-China service. American has said it will bid for more China routes.

US Airways currently doesn't have aircraft large enough to make a nonstop flight between the US and China.

"We can get them," Rader said. "They are pretty readily available."

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