American Airlines is to begin the Seattle-Shanghai Pudong route, subject to government approval. Shanghai is the largest Chinese market from the Washington state airport.

Over 261,000 seats were available between the two airports last year, OAG Schedules Analyser shows, up a strong 16% YOY.

The route comes as American Airlines reveals that 19 long-haul routes will cease or not begin from its Charlotte, Chicago ORD, Dallas DFW, Los Angeles, Miami, and Philadelphia hubs. These include Los Angeles-Shanghai Pudong.

The plan is to serve Shanghai Pudong from Seattle instead, with Alaska Airlines providing strong feed over Seattle.

Shanghai will join American’s two other new routes from the Washington airport, Bangalore and London Heathrow, with the launch of both happening next year.

The Seattle-China seat capacity totaled 608,000 last year, down 1.6% YOY. This volume was across routes to Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, with the decline mainly from Xiamen Airlines ending its Shenzhen service last September. Shanghai had a 43% share of these 608,000 seats.

Delta had a 51% share of the Seattle-China seats last year, up from 47% YOY.