PORTLAND, Ore. -- Evergreen International Airlines has won preliminary approval for a new air cargo route to China.

The McMinnville-based cargo giant enlisted members of Congress and a former Bush administration Cabinet member to lobby the U.S. Department of Transportation for the right to serve the highly competitive market.

Evergreen plans to acquire two Boeing 747-400F freighters to operate six round-trip flights a week to Shanghai from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, with stops in Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Columbus, Ohio.

The airline plans to carry about 800,000 pounds of cargo a week out of China starting March 29.

Unlike competitors that pick up cargo in South Korea and elsewhere, Evergreen freighters will fly directly to the United States, departing and arriving on the same day as they cross the international dateline.

"This gives us a long-term commitment," said Brian Bauer, Evergreen International president. "It enables us to build more for the future as well."

At least two dozen members of Congress, and former U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, wrote current Secretary Mary Peters to support Evergreen's application.

Mineta, now a partner at the Hill & Knowlton public relations firm, described Evergreen's proposal as realistic while the airline industry grapples with declining traffic and stratospheric fuel prices.

"Major carriers have been forced to pare back services, park or dispose of aircraft, and to delay new services in limited-entry markets," Mineta wrote.

He said "risky proposals" by other carriers to serve markets they are planning to leave "make no sense in today's economic environment."

Two other companies, Kalitta Air of Michigan and TradeWinds Airlines of North Carolina, competed vigorously with Evergreen for the U.S.-China route.

Department officials said they chose Evergreen because it could best compete with other U.S.-China cargo airlines, which include Federal Express, Northwest Airlines, Polar Air Cargo, United Parcel Service and China Cargo Airlines.

Shanghai is mainland China's largest cargo hub, according to Evergreen, with nearly twice as much freight as Beijing and almost four times as much as Guangzhou.