United Airlines operates more non-stop U.S. to China flights and goes to more Chinese cities than any other American airline. And some of the routes you might not expect, like Las Vegas to Chengdu or Portland to Xi'an.

United's hub in San Francisco has by far the most U.S. direct flights to China, including this one added last year to Hangzhou.

Yi Jun, who works for Alibaba in Hangzhou, hopes they'll be even more direct flights between U.S. and Chinese cities.

"I think more people want direct flight to the U.S. for two reasons. One is for business. A lot of companies move to secondary cities, which are still big. The other is more people want to travel internationally," said Yi.

But air space can hit turbulence.

American Airlines remains locked in a dispute with the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which hasn't granted the airline any landing or take off spots in Beijing.

Last week, American Airlines filed a formal objection with the U.S. Department of Transportation to stop Air China from renewing its permit to fly between Beijing and Houston.

The International Air Transport Association forecasts the global airline industry will make a net profit this year of nearly 30 billion U.S. dollars.