TokyoTomo Travel Guide

“Hina Matsuri” (in Japanese 雛祭り, Festival of Dolls) celebrated on March 3, is a once a year event during which little girls learn the importance of gentility and thoughtfulness, qualities they would need to become good wives and mothers in traditional Japanese society. A major feature of this celebration is the display of Hina Ningyo, special dolls representing aspects of the royal court during the Heian period (795-1185), usually arranged on a five- or seven-tiered stand that is covered with a celebratory red cloth and placed in the best room of the house.

Both JAL and ANA celebrated Hina Matsuri today with “Hina Matsuri Flights”, by running domestic flights, operated mostly by female ground staff, attendants, mechanics and co-pilots (unfortunately both airlines have yet to have any female pilots promoted to the rank of captain but will soon see one in years to come). At Tokyo Haneda Airport, today JAL1605 bound for Kumamoto and ANA193 bound for Oita were designated to be operated by female staff members. The team of solely female staff from both ANA and JAL, demonstrated each own roles and professions, and their contribution in this much-focused airlines industry.

The two airlines introduced Hina Matsuri flights last year with the intention to highlight the role of women in the airline industry. where most positions available to women were cabin attendants or check-in staff. This has changed and both airlines have began hiring female mechanics, cargo handlers as well as pilots in recent years.

Haneda airport is set to upgrade its Instrument Landing System (ILS) from the present Category II to Category III following cancellation of hundred over flights due to dense fog last week. Last Thursday in the morning, an area of warm, moist air flowed into the Kanto region from the south, which cooled over Tokyo Bay, caused fog to flow into coastal areas. Resulting in bad visibility, paralizing aircraft movements at Tokyo’s Haneda airport and forcing most airlines to cancel flights or to reroute them, disrupting thousands of travelers.

An upgrade to CAT-III instrument landing approach procedures would allow aircraft to begin approach with close to zero visibility, landing in the densest fog, said Mr Maihara, the transport minister. Haneda airport, which is now operating a CAT-II approach and landing system will progressively upgrade for operations under CAT-III conditions. This will enable aircraft to make an approach and land under extremely low visibility conditions up to visibility minima of 30 meters and below, or having no decision height and no runway visual range limitations, as against the current visibility minima of 30 meters and a runway visual range not less than 300 meters (350 meters for certain aircrafts) for CAT-II operations.

The upgrade help optimize operational capability, greatly reduce disruptions caused by weather, reaffirming Haneda’s commitment, is also viewed by many as an essential component for positioning Haneda airport as an International hub.

Yoshio Taguchi, Deputy Director of International Air Transport Division, Civil Aviation Bureau of MLIT addressed the recent JATA Management Forum 2010 about its strategy for the internationalization of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and explained that the international flights departing from Haneda after October “will be evenly distributed to serve nearly all major international cities.” The number of daily international departure and arrival slots available after the airport’s further expansion is expected to total 40 during the day and another 40 during the late evening and early morning. The day time slots will see 24 flights assigned to serve Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the late evening and early morning slots have been allocated to 36 flights serving 11 countries in Asia, North America and Europe. The respective take-off and landing slots are allocated half/half between Japan and its counterparts. Except for some destinations, airlines are generally eager to operate the routes from Haneda, said Taguchi.

Out of the departure and arrival slots available during the day, Korea has been allocated daily 12 slots and Hong Kong and Taiwan have been allocated daily four slots and eight slots respectively. As far as the remaining 16 slots are concerned, Taguchi said that International Air Transport Division of Civil Aviation Bureau is expected to grant all these 16 slots to China during the aviation talks between the two countries. The actual increase of the slots is daily 24 since 16 slots have been used up for the currently operated scheduled charter flights. Taguchi continued, “ A majority of the remaining 24 day time take-off and landing slots will be most probably allocated to flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Busan, Hong Kong and Taiwan’s Songshan,” expecting these destinations from Haneda to enhance the network of short-haul Asian business shuttle flights.

Meanwhile, the late evening and early morning slots have been agreed to be assigned to four flights to Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore respectively, two flights each to Malaysia and Thailand, eight flights to USA, two flights to Canada, four flights to Germany and two flights respectively to Netherland, France and UK. “Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Hong Kong are to be definitely served from Haneda,” said Taguchi, adding, ”Although European airlines have not released any definite flight schedules, Japanese carriers are said to be considering starting services to Frankfurt, London and Paris which are the respective hubs of their partnership airlines.” Five US carriers declared their wish to inaugurate the US routes from Haneda Airport, but US government reportedly said that it intends to allocate some of the take-off and landing slots to Hawaii and Guam. The remaining four departure and arrival slots, like the day time slots, will be reserved for China and dealt with during the negotiations with China.

Asked to comment on a probability of low cost carriers (LCCs) operating from Haneda, Taguchi of International Air Transport Division, CAB, said, “We have no reason to turn down their requests, but we presume that their flag carriers will, under the general circumstances, operate the Haneda route since its landing fee will be quite expensive for LCCs (low cost carriers). Having said that, he indicated a possibility that LCCs may, nevertheless, start services taking advantage of the late evening and early morning take-off and landing slots, during which the preferred slots may be comparatively easy for the low cost carriers to secure to operate scheduled flights or charter flights.

Source: Travel Vision

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