WASHINGTON -- Delta would be able to expand its Los Angeles-Tokyo
service to daily flights if the Transportation Department makes
final a tentative decision to award two slots at Tokyo's Narita
Airport to the carrier.
It also tentatively awarded two winter-only slots to American,
which would enable it to expand San Jose-Tokyo service to daily
flights in winter.
The DOT was put in the unusual position of deciding slot
allocations for a foreign airport when Narita's slot coordinator
asked the DOT to do so and report its decision by Aug. 12.
Air travelers won't be the prime beneficiaries: Of the 22
available slots, the DOT proposed to award most of them to cargo
carriers, citing new passenger services that already resulted from
the new aviation deal with Japan.