US carriers shrinking in United States-Southeast Asia market

US carriers are shrinking their presence in the Southeast Asian market, which they serve via Asian hubs, typically in Tokyo or Hong Kong. United's current schedule sees a 27% drop from its last schedule, and is made feasible by merger partner Continental having a narrowbody fleet in the Asia-Pacific region. The decline follows previous cuts made by Delta merger partner Northwest. Despite United's cuts to Vietnam, Delta has no plans to add capacity. Southeast Asian carriers have almost twice the capacity to North America as US carriers have to Southeast Asia.

Delta even considered deploying its B777-200LR on non-stop flights from the US to Singapore, as Singapore Airlines does with a fleet of A340-500s, but determined sustaining the flights would be difficult. Working against US carriers are their higher cost bases than Southeast Asian carriers, despite US carriers having extensive fifth freedom rights in the region.