NW general manager Hong Kong Webster O'Brien said NW offered quick connections through Minneapolis to east coast cities with large Chinese populations, including New York, Toronto, Orlando and Philadelphia.
"I think people (who've) done the west coast several times, (will) give it a whirl and see that the east coast is as accessible as the west coast has been," he said.
O'Brien said NW's service offered a second travel pattern to people from Hong Kong who traditionally visited the American west coast and then went east, returning home from the east.
"Although there will always be strong demand to the west coast, we think the market will shift because people will prefer to fly deeper into the US (United States)," he said.
NW is promoting Minneapolis as a stopover destination, offering shopping, winter sports such as ice skating and snow mobiling, and a summer outdoors lifestyle.
"People can travel through and beyond Minneapolis and then return to the west coast because we offer daily services from San Francisco and Seattle to Narita (Tokyo) and Narita's run as a hub as well," he said.
He expected service quality to improve with the completion of construction of Narita's terminal one. NW's flying time from Hong Kong to Minneapolis is 13-and-a-half hours. From Minneapolis, it takes two-and-a-half hours to fly to New York's La Guardia Airport, just under two hours to Toronto, and just over three hours to Orlando.