DOT announces day-time flights to Tokyo Haneda

WASHINGTON – Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx tentatively announced Wednesday that the four airlines serving Tokyo’s Haneda airport with night-time flights have been chosen to begin more desirable daytime flights this fall.

American Airlines and Delta Air Airlines will fly from Los Angeles. Delta will also fly from Minneapolis/St. Paul, which is a new route. United Airlines will fly from San Francisco. And Hawaiian Airlines will fly from Honolulu.

Hawaiian earlier won approval in May to keep a remaining daily night-time flight, which it will split between Honolulu and Kona.

Hawaiian keeps night-time access to Tokyo's Haneda airport

“The availability of daytime access to Tokyo’s centrally located Haneda Airport will create more choice and convenience for both business and leisure travelers, and advances the department’s work to increase competition and bring enhanced service options to the marketplace,” Foxx said.

Objections to the tentative approvals must be filed by Aug. 1. Based on airline requests, the department basically rejected applications from American to fly from Dallas/Fort Worth, Delta from Atlanta and United from Newark.

American had argued that its Los Angeles flight averages 91.5% full, and that the route offers better connections than Delta's network. United touted its 150,000 annual passengers from San Francisco and argued that Newark would provide access to the enormous New York City-area market.

But Delta argued that Minneapolis would offer less circuitous connections than either Dallas or Newark, and that its planes would offer 30% more seating capacity than American.

Jenny Rosenberg, acting assistant secretary for aviation, ruled in the 13-page tentative decision that Delta's Minneapolis proposal would enhance geographic diversity from Chicago, which is served by All Nippon Airways.

Airlines competed for the slots because compared to Tokyo's busier Narita airport, Haneda’s closer-to-downtown convenience is comparable to New York’s LaGuardia or Washington’s Reagan National airports in the United States.

Under a 2010 agreement, four U.S. airlines got permission to land and take off daily at Haneda overnight -- ostensibly because of noise concerns. But a February agreement allowed six daily flights from the U.S., with five during the day and one overnight, as Japan prepares to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Current U.S. flights land at Haneda between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. local time.

Under the new agreement effective Oct. 30, the five daytime flights can land between 6 a.m. and 10:55 p.m. The sixth flight could land between 10 p.m. and 6:55 a.m.