News
Japan and U.S. forge landmark Haneda slot deal
February 19th 2016
Japanese and U.S. aviation authorities on Thursday amended the “Open Skies” agreement between the two countries to allow for ten day time landing and take-off slots at Tokyo’s downtown Haneda Airport, for services to the U.S. from October. Read More » The slots are to be shared equally between U.S. and Japanese carriers. Previously, U.S. carrier U.S.-bound flights were only allowed to operate at Haneda at night.
"Japan-U.S. routes are one of the most important air networks for our country and we're glad to have reached agreement after prolonged talks," Transport Minister, Keiichi Ishii, told reporters after three days of negotiations, including opposition from Delta Air Lines. The U.S. carrier fears its hub at Narita could lose significance.
Currently, there are four take-off and landing slots for U.S. carriers at Haneda. Hawaiian Airlines has a Honolulu-Haneda service and United Airlines operates a San Francisco-Haneda flight, while Delta and American Airlines fly to Los Angeles.
The new deal will bring the number of slots to twelve as the late night slots will be cut to two and ten day time slots will be added. Japanese and U.S. carriers will then be given six slots each, said the Civil Aviation Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It added it identify the local airlines before the Golden Week holidays from late April.
Shinya Katanozaka, President and CEO of ANA Holdings, told Orient Aviation’s Week in Asia-Pacific Aviation last night: “We would like to thank the Civil Aviation Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism for bringing these negotiations with the U.S. to a successful conclusion. There is strong customer demand for more services to U.S. destinations from Haneda airport because of its closeness to the centre of Tokyo and its convenient location for passengers making domestic connections.
“We are therefore very pleased that we will be able use the new take-off slots being made available to launch day time services to the US. We expect these slots to be allocated in a way that safeguards fair competition between Japanese carriers and allows us to meet passenger demand for greater flight connections between our two countries.”
"We thank the U.S. Departments of Transportation and State, as well as the Japan Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, for taking this important step to enhance the U.S.-Japan aviation relationship," said American's President, Scott Kirby. "We offer our sincere thanks to Secretary Kerry, Under Secretary Novelli, Secretary Foxx, Assistant Secretary Kurland and their teams for their leadership and commitment to achieving this deal. It's important for our customers to have convenient access to downtown Tokyo during the day, and this agreement also allows for desirable arrival and departure times in the U.S. for Haneda service."
Delta, however, said it was “deeply disappointed with the final agreement reached today between the U.S. and Japanese governments to incrementally open the Tokyo-Haneda airport. Tokyo-Haneda will remain a severely restricted airport with limited competition. Delta is committed to doing our best to maintain the viability of our current Asian route structure and our Tokyo-Narita hub for as long as possible, recognizing that commercial impacts are imminent. Delta will make a careful assessment and adjust our network accordingly,” said Delta chief legal officer, Peter Carter.
