American Airlines plans to take advantage of more slots at Tokyo's Haneda Airport becoming available to US carriers with new services to the city from Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX) and Las Vegas (LAS).
The news follows Delta's massive expansion plans to launch services to Haneda from 5 US cities and is a direct result of the US and Japan reaching a tentative agreement last month to expand access at HND, which would open up to 12 additional daytime slot pairs for US carrier operations.
“Tokyo is an important hub for our Pacific Joint Business with Japan Airlines,” said American Airlines President Robert Isom. “Enhanced service at Haneda would give our customers better access to downtown Tokyo and open up JAL’s domestic network with flights to destinations like Osaka, Sapporo and Fukuoka.”
American currently operates one daily flight between LAX and HND, which began in 2016. An additional flight from LAX would provide American’s customers with even more options and a convenient schedule between Tokyo and the airline’s West Coast hub. Additionally, DFW, American’s largest hub, serves as an important gateway to Asia with proven local and connecting traffic. With two daily flights, customers travelling from Haneda to DFW would be able to connect to and from more than 800 daily flights and more than 200 destinations throughout American’s vast network.
Las Vegas is one of the largest unserved U.S. markets for Japanese travellers. In January, American, together with JAL, operated a special nonstop flight between Tokyo Narita (NRT) and LAS around CES® 2019. Nonstop service was available Jan. 4–14 on American’s state-of-the-art Boeing 787-8.
American’s proposed Haneda service would be operated as part of the airline’s Pacific Joint Business with JAL. The Pacific Joint Business was established in 2011 and covers travel among 11 countries in Asia and North America. It allows the two airlines to coordinate schedules, network and service to give more than 3.1 million annual customers access to up to 23 daily trans-Pacific flights from 15 gateway cities in Asia and North America.
(Images American Airlines)
