Originally Posted by RichardInSF
OK, thanks. But again, I cannot imagine that AA will give up a NRT slot without thinking VERY hard about it. At the very least, they will sell it for a bundle.
NRT prohibits the sale of slots, they revert back to the airport (unlike LHR, where they sell for millions). But NRT does allow parking slots for a long time (many months, maybe even years), and I think AA could share the slot with JL so there probably is no urgency in getting another flight to NRT. The irony in all this is that AA was one of the airlines a few years back arguing against large planes from hubs and for smaller planes for point-to-point trans-Atlantic service. Something they have started to implement (with routes like 757 BOS-MAN). So giving up their only point-to-point trans-Pacific flight speaks volumes about this strategy (and how dependent it is to sizing the plane to exactly match loads).