TokyoTomo Travel Guide

All Nippon Airways, ANA today applied to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to reduce its fuel surcharge on international flights from October 1, 2010.

The fuel surcharge is fixed for a period of two months, after which it is revised on the basis of the average market price of Singapore kerosene for the two months previous to the date of application for revision. As jet fuel fell to an average of US$86.21 per barrel from June to July 2010, the surcharge will be fixed in accordance with the chart below.

Surcharge Levels (per person per single sector)

Conditions for Revision (and removal) of the Surcharge
(1) The fuel surcharge will not be revised for the two months from October 1 to November 30, 2010 regardless of market movements. The levels stated are subject to government approval.
(2) The level of the fuel surcharge from December 1, 2010 will be fixed based on the average market price of Singapore kerosene for the months of August and September.
(3) If the two months average cost of Singapore kerosene falls below US$60 per barrel, the fuel surcharge will be removed altogether.

Notes
(1) The fuel surcharge applies in its entirety to all fares, including discount fares, child fares and award tickets. It is not subject to any discount whatsoever. Children under the age of two who do not occupy a seat will not be subject to the surcharge.
(2) In the case of refunded tickets, the surcharge will be refunded in full and will not be subject to any charges.

Have a press release and would like us to publish it? TokyoTomo welcomes your submissions. If you would like to submit your new product, service or other industrial news for review by our editors, please write to pr@tokyotomo.com TokyoTomo does not necessarily guarantee coverage of every new product or release however as long as it is relevant to travel in Japan, we will try to include them.

U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) officially granted on July 6 four new routes between Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and U.S.A. to American Airlines (AA), Delta Air Lines (DL) and Hawaiian Airlines (HA). These four new routes, which had been provisionally approved by DOT on May 7 this year, include American Airlines’ Haneda/New York route, Delta Air Lines’ Haneda/Los Angeles and Haneda/Detroit routes and Hawaiian Airlines’ Haneda/Honolulu route. Meanwhile, Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau (CAB) at Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) reminded that Hawaiian Airlines will still have to apply for a CAB approval for the “International Air Transport Services by Foreign Nationals.” Also, these three carriers which include American Airlines and Delta Air Lines are requested to submit to Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) the respective new or revised business plans, whichever applicable, and file the respective air fares with MLIT.

Hawaiian Airline has meanwhile announced its first flight from Haneda Airport slated for October 31 this year. Mark B. Dunkerley, President & Chief Executive Officer at Hawaiian Airlines had said during the media briefing held on May 19 that although the airline’s first priority was to obtain an official approval to operate one flight per day, it was hopeful to add the second frequency in the foreseeable future in order to expand its Japan route. In efforts to foster its relationship with travel agencies, he added, Hawaiian Airlines intends to finely tune the ratio between its direct sales and the agency sales. Aircraft to be put into service will be Boeing B767-300ER configured with 264 passenger seats. The airline also plans to introduce a 294-seater Airbus A330-200 later on.

American Airlines (AA) has also revealed that it is scheduled to launch its inaugural flight from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on January 12 next year. Aircraft to be introduced on the new Haneda/U.S. route will be Boeing B777. Meanwhile, Japan Airlines (JL), a member of the same Oneworld alliance, plans to operate new services between Haneda and San Francisco and also between Haneda and Honolulu starting from October 31 this year. Consequently, Oneworld will be able to enhance its route network between Tokyo’s Haneda and U.S.A.

Delta Air Lines has not yet released its inaugural flight date. The airline intends to announce its flight schedule within the next few weeks, however. Masaki Ito, Director of Sales, Japan at Delta Air Lines, Inc. has told the Travel Vision News that its new Haneda/U.S. routes should provide passenger-friendly schedules especially for business travelers, adding that the airline is convinced of the possibility of attracting new market segments in the Japan market. He has also told the Travel Vision News that he would like to draw attention to the new routes and suggest a new travel style different from its current Narita/U.S. route, taking advantage of the airline’s late evening departures from Haneda Airport. With a quickly growing seat capacity from Tokyo’s Haneda, the airlines concerned must make concerted efforts together with travel agencies in order to create and boost travel demand, capitalizing on the newly granted routes between Haneda and U.S., emphasized Ito of Delta Air Lines.

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.

All Nippon Airways (NH) announced its decision to launch new services to Los Angeles, Honolulu, Singapore and Bangkok from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport from October 31 this year. Taipei’s Songshan was already announced earlier as one of the new destinations served from Haneda. The current charter flights from Haneda to Seoul’s Gimpo, Beijing, Shanghai’s Hongqiao and Hong Kong will be operated as scheduled international flights. The Haneda/Hong Kong flight presently operated with a late-night departure will be rescheduled to depart during the daytime. Consequently, ANA will serve nine international routes from Haneda, operating 96 weekly flights, including an increased frequency of the Haneda/Seoul service. The ticket sales started from July 1.

The Haneda/Beijing and Haneda/Shanghai routes are still subject to approval by the aviation agreement between Japan and China, but the negotiation itself has been pending for quite some time. Although Japan has been approaching China to resume the talks, China has been so far reluctant to do so. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) observes that Beijing and Shanghai are already attracting substantial demand from both international and domestic airlines and, under the circumstances, China may probably find it difficult to comply with Japan’s request.

Even if China continues to decline the negotiations with Japan, Civil Aviation Bureau (CAB) at MLIT said, it will make untiring efforts to reopen the talks between the two countries. Commenting on a maximum of 20 take-off and landing slots currently allocated daily to China, CAB mentioned that it may become necessary sooner or later to consider to reallocating these slots to other countries.

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.