SEA1K4EVR

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA - News), today applied to the U.S. Department of Transportation to provide non-stop air service from San Francisco to Haneda Airport in downtown Tokyo. United is applying for one of four pairs of daily U.S. to Haneda slots that are available to U.S. carriers under the recently approved US-Japan Open Skies Agreement.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/United....html?x=0&.v=1

It appears Delta and Continental have also applied: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Delta-....html?x=0&.v=3

Rpcfly

^^^ I hope they get it. Narita is just too far from Tokyo...even with the new high speed train going in it will save a significant amount of time to get to downtown Tokyo...The INTL terminal at Haneda is just a dump though.

joeljack

That yahoo finance article says UA wants to fly from SEA??? I don't believe that.

mahasamatman

Wow. That would be an amazing (and extremely popular) route.

Where do you see that? I see no mention of SEA at all. (Ah, I see. It's in the second article. Looks like another gaff by AP.)

SEA1K4EVR

Yeah it says that but it's an error. Delta wants to fly from SEA, UA from SFO. The reporter got it wrong.

aau

United proposal details.

SFO-HND 1905-2220
HND-SFO 0000-1720

Daily utilizing 269-seat B777-200ER.

Awesome timings! I think UA and HA have a good shot at getting two of the four slots. The other two will be a brawl between Delta (HNL, SEA, DTW, LAX), CO (EWR, GUM), and AA (JFK, LAX).

mahasamatman

Wow. That schedule sucks.

SEA1K4EVR

It does suck. I'm not a fan of midnight departures.. and both of the arrival times could make it tough for same day domestic connections at either end.

Downdog

I wish they had applied from LAX instead of SFO....

Eastbay1K

I'd imagine that the YTO end is mostly for O/D - you can still fly via NRT for that. On the SFO end, you still have west coast connections, and also the redeye bank in a few hours.

Axey

Not for people going to TYO on business, which is likely how they'll be pitching this flight. Allows full days of work on either end.

myperks

You can say that again...at least the SFO-HND part...
I was excited to hear the news as now I don't need to connect in NRT and KIX to get to KOJ...
but now need to overnight in HND for most connections to Japan domestic flights, per tentative schedule

whakojacko

thats primarily due to the restrictions on when US flights would be allowed-IIRC its something like only between 2200 and 0700, with the departure having to be midnight or later.
Its also a decent schedule for business flyers between the two cities

Edit: here are some other times requested:

AA135 JFK-HND 1755-2205
AA134 HND-JFK 0700-0520

AA129 LAX-HND 1710-2200
AA128 HND-LAX 0015-1650

(haha delta applied for 4 cities....)
DL59 SEA-HND 1810-2200 A333
DL58 HND-SEA 0000-1600 A333

DL627 DTW-HND 1820-2200 B744
DL628 HND-DTW 0700-0500 B744

DL205 LAX-HND 1650-2200 B744
DL204 HND-LAX 0000-1725 B744

DL621 HNL-HND 1755-2200 B744
DL620 HND-HNL 0000-1130 B744

Hawaiian:
HA457 HNL-HND 1840-2200
HA458 HND-HNL 2345-1220+1

HA459 HNL-HND 1850-2210
HA460 HND-HNL 2355-1230+1

matti2d

doesn't the train stop running around 1 AM or so in Tokyo? the schedule would make it tough to just get to your hotel if the flight's running late.

Antipode

With that proposed schedule, it looks like it may be in addition to the two SFO-NRT flights instead of moving one of them to HND. Although, I suppose it's not completely out of the question to get rid of the second SFO-NRT anyway... I like the schedule for people going between the two cities and not connecting elsewhere.