American Airlines confirms Los Angeles – Tokyo Haneda link will take-off from February 2016

Oneworld alliance member, American Airlines has confirmed it will launch its new Transpacific link between Los Angeles and Tokyo Haneda from February next year after finally gaining the necessary slots at the Japanese airport to support its proposed flight schedule. The lucrative rights to serve the market were gained at the start of October this year, but until now the airline has not been able to gain viable slots to launch the service.

American Airlines gained access to this market earlier this year after Delta Air Lines, unhappy after losing its appeal over conditions set by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for it to retain traffic rights to fly between Seattle and Tokyo Haneda, returned the international slot rights to the regulator after ending its flights at the end of September 2015.

The daily service will commence from February 11, 2016 and will be flown using a 226-seat Boeing 787-8. American will compete directly with the existing flights of All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Delta in this market but will benefit from operating the route as part of its transpacific joint business with Japan Airlines (JAL).

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“This new flight is a fantastic addition to our growing network to Asia and a great complement to our existing service to Tokyo Narita,” said Andrew Nocella, chief marketing officer, American Airlines. “We thank the Japanese authorities for working with us to find appropriate slot times.”

However, it is understood that external factors could still delay the launch of the new route and American has requested permission from the US DOT to potentially delay the launch until February 29, 2016. In official correspondence with the DOT it says: "circumstances unknown by American now could delay the start-up".

In order to avoid having to file another request with the department, American asks for a "delay to the start-up for the full 60 days after American's recepit of the slots from the Haneda Slot Coordinator". However, it notes that it remains committed to commence the route from February 11, 2016.

The American route to Haneda replaces Delta’s flight to the airport from Seattle which it had found “not commercially feasible” to operate on a consistent daily basis year-round because of variable year-round demand.

The Los Angeles – Tokyo Haneda market suffers its own seasonal variations, but these are less severe and its scale means it can more easily accommodate year-round services, especially when the point-to-point demand can be supported with onward connections, even though the arrival time of the Transpacific flights into Haneda does make these difficult.

"It's important for our customers to have direct access to Tokyo Haneda, and we'll be proud to serve this key airport from Los Angeles," said Nocella. “We thank the US Department of Transportation and the State Department for facilitating the process and recognising the importance of American offering year-round service to Haneda."

Following American’s launch, every US carrier serving Japan will now have one pair of Haneda slots with Delta flying from Los Angeles, Hawaiian Airlines from Honolulu and United Airlines from San Francisco.

Delta has said that despite returning its second slot rights, it will still look to grow its activities in Tokyo but only once Japanese authorities are willing to open Haneda Airport under normal open skies terms and allow Delta to relocate its Tokyo hub operation to the preferred airport.

Although there is effectively an open skies agreement in place between the US and Japan, operations into Haneda Airport remain restricted by bilateral agreements due to its limited international capacity and access remains limited to times when Narita, the main international gateway to Tokyo is closed.

American already has strong experience of the Tokyo market through its existing flights from Los Angeles as well as from both its Chicago and Dallas hubs. Alongside ANA and Delta’s existing flights between Los Angeles and Haneda, ANA, Delta, JAL, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines also provide links between the US city and Narita International Airport.