The Department of Transportation on Wednesday made Delta
the biggest winner in the competition for daytime landing rights at Tokyo’s
Haneda Airport.
Delta was awarded two of the five available rights, including a new route from Minneapolis. Delta also will move its Los Angeles-Haneda flight from nighttime to daytime landing in Tokyo.
Three other airlines will go to daytime landings for existing routes: American (Los Angeles-Haneda), United (San Francisco-Haneda) and Hawaiian (Honolulu-Haneda).
The DOT's decisions are tentative. Objections must be submitted by Aug. 1. Flights could begin as soon as Oct.
30.
Combined, Delta, United, American
and Hawaiian had submitted applications for eight daytime routes into Haneda,
which is Tokyo’s largest and most convenient airport.
Their efforts to gain
more access to Haneda came pursuant to an agreement reached by the U.S and
Japan in February that will increase daily U.S.-Haneda departures and
arrivals from four to six. The deal allows for five of those six arrival/departure
pairs to be during the day. Previously, U.S. carriers could only schedule night
service to and from Haneda.
American applied to fly to
Haneda from Dallas/Fort Worth, United from Newark, and Delta from Atlanta. But those applications lost out. The DOT said it selected Minneapolis as the lone new route because it
wanted Haneda access from a Midwestern hub city.
The DOT has already awarded the one
nighttime Haneda landing right to Hawaiian, which was the only applicant. Hawaiian will operate four
night flights per week between Haneda and Honolulu and three per week
between Haneda and Kona Airport on the Big Island.