Four U.S. airlines won rights to use daytime slots at Tokyo’s close-in Haneda Airport. (Image: Haneda Airport)
Ever since Japan opened up Tokyo’s close-in Haneda Airport to transpacific flights, U.S. carriers have struggled to make their Haneda routes work – mostly because they were stuck with consumer-unfriendly takeoff and landing slots in the middle of the night. Since the U.S. and Japan recently negotiated some changes that allow for daytime slots at the airport, U.S. airlines have been clamoring to win those rights – and now the Transportation Department has made a tentative decision on those applications.
The agency said its initial decision awards daytime slots at Haneda to American Airlines and Delta from Los Angeles, United from San Francisco, Hawaiian from Honolulu and Delta from Minneapolis-St. Paul.
“Three of the cities – Los Angeles, Honolulu, and San Francisco – already have service to Haneda, but those services have been required to operate at night only. Under the new agreement, carriers may arrive and depart Haneda during more favorable daytime hours. The new route from Minneapolis also is included in that group,” DOT said.
Earlier, DOT had awarded Hawaiian a new nighttime slot for service from Kona and Honolulu to Haneda. The agency said service on all the newly awarded Haneda daytime routes could begin as soon as this fall.
American had also applied for daytime slots at Haneda for service from Dallas/Ft. Worth, but that was not among the new rights granted by DOT. Likewise Delta did not win authority for new Haneda service from Atlanta (it already flies Atlanta-Narita). The DOT suggested that if Delta’s service to Haneda from Minneapolis-St. Paul doesn’t work out, those rights might be shifted to American for a DFW-Haneda route.
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Adam says
July 21, 2016 at 7:16 amYes, it is easy to fly to the west coast to get a shorter flight to Tokyo, but coming back I prefer direct to MSP.
R94110 says
July 20, 2016 at 11:30 pmATL may be the world’s busiest but not in terms of international, tourism or revenue. Ir’s rarely the first choice destination for international flights.
In fact it’s mainly the busiest because Atlanta doesn’t have a second airport unlike most major cities
Kirk says
July 20, 2016 at 10:52 pmOr connect in SEA to get to NRT
Kirk says
July 20, 2016 at 10:50 pmDelta asked for these: IN THIS ORDER:
1. LAX
2. MSP
3. ATL
Not only did they get their first two choices, they are the ONLY airline that got 2 routes. Your theory that the DOT is pissed with DL is ridiculous. DL is the big winner today.
BlueLion says
July 20, 2016 at 5:22 pmI think Delta really pissed off the DOT regarding the SEA-HND route issue. It’s also interesting Delta got stuck with MSP, when a few months ago Anderson (?) told business leaders in MSP that they would lose their Tokyo link if they couldn’t move their entire operation to HND.
jeff says
July 20, 2016 at 4:47 pmAre you kidding me. Nothing from ATL (worlds busiest) and JFK!! The east coast gets stiffed.