The latest U.S. airline to apply for scarce flight slots to China is Continental Airlines, which has applied to begin two routes to China from its New York hub at Newark.

In a filing Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Continental requests permission to inaugurate service to Beijing in spring 2005 and to Shanghai in spring 2006.

Continental is proposing to fly 283-seat Boeing 777s on the service. It already flies from Newark to Hong Kong, one of the longest regularly scheduled passenger flights in the world.

Everybody wants to fly to China. Delta filed Wednesday to launch daily flights from Atlanta to Beijing. Hawaiian Airlines revealed last week it is applying for permission to fly to China from Honolulu.