TokyoTomo Travel Guide

James P. Mueller, Vice President-Pacific, United Airlines told the press briefing on March 19 that he is confident that U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will definitely grant the airline an approval to operate the Haneda/San Francisco route. At Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, United States possess four take-off and landing slots per day for the Japan/US route. At present, five US carriers filed with DOT the applications for a total of eleven routes between United States and Japan. United Airlines has filed an application only for the San Francisco/Haneda route. Considering that the slots to be evenly distributed among the alliances, chances may well be that only one slot will be granted, either to United Airlines or to Continental Airlines, both of which are ANA’s partner airlines.

Commenting on the remark, Mueller said that DOT has an extremely simple rule that “departure/arrival slots be granted on routes that give US consumers the biggest possible merit.” On the basis of the DOT rule, he told the press briefing that he is confident of the approval, adding that the airline’s Haneda route, including destinations beyond San Francisco, will become the newest route for US consumers. When asked to comment also on the airline’s sales strategy for the Haneda route, he declined to make a definite statement as there is no flight schedule available yet. He mentioned, however, that the connectivity to and from ANA’s domestic and Asia routes, furthermore to and from Star Alliance’s Asian partner airlines, should be definitely feasible.

Meanwhile, it is pointed out that the introduction of services from passenger-friendly Tokyo’s Haneda Airport may commercially lower United Airlines’ positioning at Narita Airport. Mueller maintained, however, that although Haneda, indeed, attracts the airline to serve from there, Narita will definitely continue to be a center of flight operations also within the foreseeable future, considering the size of Haneda Airport. The number of boarding gates at Haneda’s new international passenger terminal building is said to be approximately 10, whilst, at Narita, Star Alliance alone has 20 boarding gates, he said, adding that it would, therefore, be next to impossible for Haneda to accommodate all of the airlines’ Narita-based flights even if so wished by the airlines. United Airlines will continue to join forces with ANA to address its sales strategy, capitalizing on the respective airlines’ networks served from the two airports – Narita and Haneda, concluded Mueller.

Source: Travel Vision

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