American Airlines wants to launch daily nonstop service from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Tokyo’s close-in Haneda Airport, the company said Thursday. But first it will need to beat out several other carriers also competing for the coveted slot.
American filed an application with the Department of Transportation to begin daytime service to Haneda from D/FW Airport and also from Los Angeles International Airport.
If successful, it would be the fourth daily flight from D/FW to Tokyo, joining American’s twice-daily service and Japan Airline’s once-a-day flight to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport.
“The current nighttime-only rules limit a lot of the connectivity of the current Los Angeles to Haneda flight. More importantly it doesn’t allow us to connect Haneda to Dallas/Fort Worth because the arrival times are in the middle of the night and you’re leaving at a bad time from Japan,” said Howard Kass, American’s vice president for regulatory affairs. “By shifting it to daytime, we’ll be able to unlock the full power of the American hub at D/FW to offer connections to passengers to dozens and dozens of cities.”
In its filing, Fort Worth-based American touted the connectivity from D/FW airport to 104 U.S. cities and the growth or relocation of Japanese companies like Toyota in North Texas. The company proposed using a 247-passenger Boeing 777-200 on the D/FW route, which would depart at 10:55 a.m. and arrive at Haneda at 3:30 p.m. the following day.
American launched overnight service from Los Angeles to Haneda in February and said the flight has had a 91.5 percent load factor, a measure of how full a plane is, in the first two months of operation. The company said it wants to continue service to Haneda during the daytime as part of its ongoing effort to make Los Angeles its West Coast gateway to Asia.
“American’s two proposed frequencies maximize public benefits by creating competitive U.S.- Japan service in critical regions for local and connecting traffic,” American said in its DOT filing. “Continuation of American’s (Los Angeles to Haneda) service using a daytime slot-pair ensures that vibrant competition continues at LAX, where demand for travel to Japan is the greatest.”
The new routes to Haneda, a destination prized by business travelers for its close proximity to Tokyo’s core, are being made available under a February agreement between the U.S. and Japan that opened up five new daytime slots for international flights at the airport. The agreement also allows for one overnight slot.
Previously, U.S. airlines have been restricted to overnight arrivals and departures at Haneda, with American, United, Delta and Hawaiian airlines each operating one daily flight.
Those overnight routes are currently flown from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu, but the new daytime access provides opportunities for more convenient schedules that open up new potential U.S. gateways. The new opportunities prompted the DOT to launch a full allocation proceeding, with airlines submitting proposals for which routes they’d like to operate.
In addition to American’s proposal, United said it wants to launch daytime service to Haneda from San Francisco, where it currently operates a nighttime route, and begin service from Newark Liberty International Airport.
Delta, which currently flies overnight to Haneda from Los Angeles, applied for daytime service from Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Seattle.
Hawaiian applied to continue its current service to Haneda from Honolulu during daytime hours and start new service from Kona, Hawaii.
A total of five daytime routes and one overnight route will be awarded by the DOT later this year. No applications for overnight service were submitted as part of Thursday’s round of filings.
As part of its effort to secure routes to Haneda, American has launched an online campaign where supporters sign a petition to “Let American Fly Haneda”.
The Dallas Morning News
American Airlines applies for Dallas-Haneda route
