AA, Delta, Hawaiian, United compete to serve Tokyo

WASHINGTON – The battle to expand service to Tokyo’s convenient Haneda airport has begun.

The same four airlines allowed to arrive at night now have applied to provide and add daytime flights, under an agreement reached in February.

American, Delta, Hawaiian and United got permission in 2010 to land and take off daily from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. at Haneda, which is closer to downtown than Tokyo's larger Narita airport. The convenience is roughly comparable to New York’s LaGuardia or Washington’s Reagan National airports.

American and Delta fly from Los Angeles. Hawaiian flies from Honolulu. And United flies from San Francisco.

But the new deal expands the number of daily flights to six, all but one with daytime arrivals that are better for connections. Five flights could arrive from 6 a.m. and 10:55 p.m. A sixth flight could land between 10 p.m. and 6:55 a.m.

Applications for the competitive slots were filed Thursday and airlines are eager to start flying by fall.

American proposed two daily flights, from Los Angeles and Dallas/Fort Worth.

Airline officials were asked Friday during a call with investment analysts why American chose Dallas as its second gateway, rather than New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.

“It’s our largest hub,” President Scott Kirby said. “Being able to serve the preferred airport in Japan from our largest hub is high on our priority list."

CEO Doug Parker said Dallas offered the best connectivity for travelers coming from other parts of the country. “The application is so much stronger from DFW because we connect people from all over the United States into this very large hub,” Parker said.

United proposed two daily flights, from San Francisco and Newark. United flew 150,000 customers to Haneda from San Francisco during the last year, and serves four Asian markets from Newark.

“United’s proposed service will connect two centers of global commerce and culture with Tokyo’s close-in airport and other customers more options for travel between the U.S. and Japan,” said Steve Morrissey, United’s vice president for regulations and policy.

Hawaiian proposed to continue daily route from Honolulu during daytime, add a second Honolulu route four days each week and add a Kona route three days a week for arrival either day or night.

CEO Mark Dunkerley said the Honolulu service “has been by far the most successful” of the routes approved in 2010. Supporting the smaller carrier against larger rivals with anti-trust alliances would demonstrate support for competition, he said.

“We have more than held our own against much larger competitors,” Dunkerley said.

Delta proposed three daily flights, from Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Atlanta.

American and United have joint ventures with Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, respectively, so they can already offer five more daytime flights on the Japanese planes, Delta argued. Delta said it deserves a larger share of the U.S. slots to maintain competitive service to Japan.

Los Angeles International Airport urged continued service with American and Delta as the second-largest market in the country and the largest gateway to Asia. Nearly 150,000 Japanese Americans live in the Los Angeles area, according to 2014 Census figures.