Originally Posted by ClipperDelta

DL will likely continue to receive more pairs than either one as the DOT has always considered these awards in the context of the existing JVs that AA and UA have with JL and NH respectively. Given that the US carriers are getting 12 slot pairs, this means that the Japanese side is going to get 12 as well for new US-Japan daytime flights and you can bet that DL will argue (and likely be somewhat successful at it) that the distribution needs to consider that AA and UA will benefit from those 12 as well.



I agree with the above scenario. Given that DL got 50% of the slots the last round, I don't see why they wouldn't apply for at least 6 of the 12 and argue that they need those to compete effectively with the two JVs. Also, these slots are for US-Japan nonstops only and not for any third party countries, so even if they wanted to, they couldn't apply for HND-SIN/MNL as part of the 12 anyway, which means MNL and SIN from TYO will be toast. So in applying for the 12 they can essentially move all of the other NRT-US flights over, and even apply for a new one - JFK.