The plant was completed but due to the Black Tuesday stock market crash of 1929 the facility stayed idle.
A second scheduled air route between Shanghai to Beijing could not be put into operation until 1933; during this time there was a major flood of the Yangtze river and the Japanese invasion (Mukden Incident) of mainland China.
In 1937 on the outbreak of the war between China and Japan, due to growing concerns about preserving American neutrality, Bond effectively resigned from his position at Pan-Am and became a direct employee of CNAC.
In spite of operations during civil and global war, Pan Am's remaining share of CNAC was sold to the Chinese government at a profit.
Bond had started compiling his memoirs, which were later edited by James E. Ellis and published in 2001 as "Wings for an Embattled China".