China and the United States have signed an agreement to expand their aviation market access, which the U.S. side estimates will bring them about US$13 billion in revenue.

Yang Yuanyuan, minister of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and Mary Peters, minister of the U.S. Transportation Department, signed the agreement on July 10 in Seattle. In addition, Yang also signed with Leocadia Zak, acting director of U.S. Trade and Development Agency, which has promised to allocate US$1.69 million to fund aviation projects between the two countries.

According to the agreement, Chinese aviation companies can now enter the Sino-U.S. aviation transportation market without any limitation and based on the series of agreements reached earlier, the aviation and cargo transportation market between the two countries will be fully opened by 2011.

From 2007 to 2012, commercial passenger flights between U.S. and eastern China are expected to be increased to 70 per week for each side. The two sides will hold negotiations on the schedules and timetable of opening their aviation market from 2010.