TokyoTomo Travel Guide

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

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is now working on the feasibility of adding a 5th runway for Haneda airport now that it is going international, aiming at being a round-the-clock hub airport located in central Tokyo. With the 4th runway scheduled to complete in October this year, opening up to 120,000 additional take-off and landing movements per year, will begin offer more international routes and better connections, strengthening Haneda’s role as a hub airport.

Many foreign carriers have expressed interest to operate out of Haneda airport, because of the close proximity to the city as compared to Narita, which is seen as a lucrative route. Just last year we saw Singapore Airlines and Jetstar Asia both claiming for the twice-daily flight to Haneda, with SIA securing them all. And in recent news, all five US airlines companies (American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines) scrambling for the precious four round-trips daily between U.S. cities and Haneda airport.

The discussion of a 5th runway is no surprise. It is only a matter of time before we hear calls for expansion stressing the need for another runway. The Transport Ministry will have to work on calculating the cost and requirement for the extra runway by March next year before announcing its decision.

The working team at Tourism Nation Promotion Headquarters held the second meeting on February 5 to discuss measures to alleviate the restrictions on tourist visa to Japan as part of the Chinese tourist solicitation program. At the meeting, Yuji Fujimoto, Parliamentary Secretary for Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, who also serves as Secretary General of the Headquarters, made a report of the ASEAN + 3 Tourism Ministers Meeting held in January at which he himself attended. He said, “The Meeting revealed that ASEAN countries are enthusiastic about attracting Chinese tourists to their places, which signifies their great expectation for the Chinese market. We have to get something done immediately on our part.”

At this second meeting, Ministry of Transport and Tourism presented the basic plan of the scheme to which Japan Tourism Agency, National Police Agency, and Ministry of Justice are supposed to give feedback at working level to make up the draft by the end of March. It will be submitted to the Headquarters in April or in May at the latest. Since the Growth Strategy Meeting is to finalize the “Growth Scenario” in June, everything should be in order by that time. They try to set the date in July for easing restrictions on individual tourist visa in all parts of China. With regard to the controversial minimum income requirement, they say, “It might end up with revision, rather than removal of restrictions.”

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.