U.S. Airlines Battle Over Access to Tokyo’s Preferred Airport
Photo Credit: U.S. airlines want to win new rights to fly to Tokyo Haneda, pictured here in a photo from 2016. Flickr / Masahiro Takagi
Skift Take
Delta Air Lines wants U.S. regulators to award it a disproportionate number of slots at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, a preferred airport among business travelers. Other airlines disagree, but Delta probably does deserve better access, as it is the only one of the big three U.S. carriers without a Japanese partner.
After American Airlines canceled its daily flight from New York to Tokyo's Haneda Airport in 2013, its then-CEO called it a loss-maker, telling a reporter the airline couldn't "tolerate" it any longer. Delta Air Lines shared similar sentiments after moving a flight from Detroit.
Since the Japanese government reopened to U.S. airlines in 2010, Haneda has had the trappings of a profit maker. It's located in a vibrant market, with massive premium demand, and it's closer to downtown than the region's other global hub, Tokyo Narita, where most intercontinental flights have landed for 40 years. And its biggest tenants, Japan Airlines and ANA, have close ties to U.S airlines, so many customers can connect at Haneda to other Asian destinations.
But during the past eight years, the Japanese government refused to make it easy for U.S. carriers. At first, the problem was timing. When the Japanese government opened Haneda to a handful of U.S. airline flights in 2010, it only permitted them t
