Originally Posted by
FWAAA
Sure, HA's existing flight has some strong numbers, but that flight benefits zero percent of the American traveling public. Quite frankly, the US government didn't negotiate valuable HND rights (especially daytime rights) so that a leisure-oriented airline in HI could use those rights to fly Japanese tourists to the islands. Especially when HA could obtain the same economic impact and benefit if it chose to fly from NRT.
HA does fly to NRT.
Originally Posted by
FWAAA
These very limited frequencies' highest and best use is to enable US business travelers (whose destination is Tokyo) to use the preferred Tokyo airport.
That's a real misuse of the slots. The real benefit of flying to HND is to get connections to all the countless locations which are only served from HND but not from NRT. That is also where reasonable day time arrival time matters in order to make the onward connections.
If anyone is TYO bound, they can just as easily fly to NRT, which is easier and more convenient (choice of two direct and relatively fast trains) to get to the city from anyway than HND (requires multiple train/metro changes), though yes it's a longer distance away.
That is why HA needs the slots from HND. In order to get the maximum economic impact for the US and thus have the most public good, the connections at HND are essential, since the onward destinations served from NRT are many less than from HND. In short, NRT makes sense to fly to if your destination is Tokyo. HND is the place to go if you are traveling onwards to elsewhere in Japan. Same vice versa.