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UA applies for 6x additional HND slots - UA gets EWR, ORD, IAD, LAX

Old Feb 21, 2019, 1:00 pm
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[/QUOTE]
United Airlines Adds Service to Tokyo, Haneda with Routes from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York/Newark and Washington, D.C.

CHICAGO, Aug. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines today announced it will begin service between four of its U.S. hubs and Tokyo's Haneda International Airport, located approximately 15 minutes from downtown Tokyo. United will begin operating nonstop service between Chicago, Los Angeles, New York/Newark and Washington, D.C. and Haneda on March 28, 2020, subject to government approval. United currently offers daily nonstop service between San Francisco and Haneda. Tickets for United's new Haneda flights will be available for purchase starting Saturday, August 17.

In addition to United's new Haneda flights, Tokyo's Narita International airport will continue to be a hub for United with nonstop daily service between Narita and Denver, Guam, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark and San Francisco. With the start of these new routes, United will no longer serve Narita from its Chicago and Washington D.C. hubs, and will shift these flights from Narita to Haneda.

"Our new service to Haneda gives our customers more choice and connections to more than 65 destinations throughout Asia. With service beginning next spring, we look forward to providing convenient service for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, and beyond," said Patrick Quayle, United's vice president of International Network. "United has offered nonstop service between the U.S. and Japan for more than 40 years and we are excited to expand our Japan network at Tokyo's Haneda Airport and continue to be the largest U.S. carrier to Japan."

United commends the efforts of Secretary Elaine Chao, her team at the U.S. Department of Transportation and officials at the U.S. State Department in making additional services at Tokyo Haneda a reality starting spring 2020.[/quote]





2019 HANEDA COMBINATION SERVICES
ALLOCATION PROCEEDING
DOCKET DOT-OST-2019-0014


U.S. Department of Transportation Tentatively Grants United Airlines Authority to Operate New Service to Tokyo Haneda
New slots from four hubs to Haneda Airport will expand United's best-in-class Japan route network to better meet demand from U.S. consumers and businesses
CHICAGO, May 16, 2019
-- The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today announced that United Airlines was tentatively granted a total of four daily nonstop flights to Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND). The slots will be allocated for flights from United's hubs at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Pending completion of an aviation agreement between the U.S. and Japanese governments later this year, the flights are expected to begin service by the summer of 2020.

"As the largest U.S. carrier to Asia, we are excited to see we were granted additional slots to Haneda to help more Americans travel between our nation and Japan's capital city, which will offer our customers an unparalleled experience while maximizing choice," said United Airlines President Scott Kirby. "We would like to thank the U.S. Department of Transportation for its work in reviewing our proposal and advocating for what is best for the American public and for our economy. We also recognize the efforts of the U.S. State Department's work with the DOT to enable additional service at Haneda."

Together, the flights from these U.S. mainland hub cities will connect Tokyo Haneda with:
  • The U.S.'s largest metropolitan area and center of finance and commerce, Newark/New York;
  • The most important logistics and transportation hub in the Midwest, Chicago;
  • The seat of the U.S. federal government, Washington, D.C.; and
  • Additional U.S. carrier service in the largest U.S. mainland - Tokyo market at Los Angeles.
This announcement will strengthen United's broad-based and end-to-end network between the United States and Japan. United's proposed flights to Haneda would allow U.S. consumers to make connections to 37 points in Japan via United's joint venture partner All Nippon Airways (ANA), strengthening United's existing comprehensive network. Throughout this proceeding United has been the only U.S. airline to recognize the unique benefits that Tokyo Haneda and Tokyo Narita offer to the traveling public.


Only United has committed to providing service to both Tokyo airports from regions across the United States. United has proven its long-term commitment to Tokyo as a key gateway in Asia, serving Tokyo from all seven of its U.S. mainland hubs. United also serves 31 markets in the Asia/Pacific region, more than any other U.S. carrier, and has successfully launched 11 new nonstop flights from the U.S. mainland to destinations throughout the Asia/Pacific region since 2014.
United Applies to Serve Tokyo Haneda from Six Leading U.S. Hubs Where Demand Is Highest

Proposed daily nonstop flights from hubs at Newark Liberty, Chicago O'Hare, Washington Dulles, Los Angeles International, Houston George Bush and Guam will maximize choice and convenience for U.S. consumers and businesses

CHICAGO, Feb. 21, 2019
-- United Airlines announced today it has filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for a total of six daily nonstop flights to Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND) from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and Guam's A.B. Won Pat International Airport (GUM). Pending completion of an aviation agreement between the U.S. and Japanese governments later this year, and slots awarded by DOT, the flights are expected to begin service by the summer of 2020.

United has presented a proposal maximized to meet consumer demand and benefit U.S. travelers. Together, the flights from five U.S. mainland hub cities and Guam will connect Tokyo Haneda with 112 U.S. airports, representing approximately two thirds of U.S.-Tokyo demand, or more than three million annual Tokyo bookings. With United's proposed routes representing five of the six largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. mainland and a combined population of nearly 56 million, the new flights requested in this proceeding will provide consumers with more choices and more convenient options when selecting Tokyo Haneda for their travel plans.

"If awarded by the DOT, these new nonstop flights would expand United's best-in-class Japan route network to better meet demand from U.S. consumers and businesses," said United Airlines President Scott Kirby. "Tokyo is a hub of 21st century global commerce and innovation and one of the world's most popular tourist destinations. Today's filing demonstrates United's unparalleled commitment to helping more Americans travel between our nation and Japan's capital city. Our proposed flights to Tokyo Haneda will offer an unrivaled experience and maximize choice and convenience for our customers traveling between the United States and Tokyo for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and beyond."

United's proposed daily flights from Newark/New York, Los Angeles and Guam would supplement the airline's existing daily flights between those hubs and Tokyo's Narita International Airport (NRT), while United would shift existing daily nonstop Chicago, Washington D.C. and Houston flights from Tokyo Narita to Tokyo Haneda.United's application will also support American businesses and help grow the U.S. economy by offering direct flights from key business, government and cultural hubs where demand for flights to Haneda, the closest airport to central Tokyo, is the highest. With these new flights in place, United would provide Haneda service from:
  • The largest market for travel demand between the U.S. mainland and Tokyo (Los Angeles);
  • The two largest markets for travel demand between the East Coast and Tokyo (Newark/New York and Washington, D.C.);
  • The two largest markets for travel demand between the central U.S. and Tokyo (Chicago and Houston); and
  • Guam, a market with significant travel demand from a Japanese tourist base that is critical to the island's tourism industry, economy and job market.
United's proposal would help realize the full potential of these new routes for U.S. consumers and businesses by expanding United's broad-based and end-to-end network between the United States and Japan.

United's proposed flights to Haneda would allow U.S. consumers to make connections to 37 points in Japan via United's joint venture partner All Nippon Airways (ANA), strengthening United's existing comprehensive network when combined with nonstop or single-connection service from 112 U.S. airports.

United has proven its long-term commitment to Tokyo as a key gateway in Asia, serving Tokyo from 100 percent of its U.S. hubs. United also serves 31 markets in the Asia/Pacific region, more than any other U.S. carrier, and has successfully launched 11 new nonstop flights from the U.S. mainland to destinations throughout the Asia/Pacific region since 2014.United's application is in response to the U.S. DOT instituting a competitive route proceeding to allocate slot pairs, with today's application filed under DOT proceeding # DOT-OST-2019-0014. For more information about United's bid, please visit www.UnitedToHaneda.com.
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UA applies for 6x additional HND slots - UA gets EWR, ORD, IAD, LAX

Old Feb 22, 2019, 7:18 pm
  #91  
 
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Originally Posted by bocastephen
I am not following NRT traffic reports so I have no idea if the airport is still growing, or if the HND shift and hub closure is dramatically shrinking traffic there - which would be a very strange decision to shift traffic if this was the case.
NRT is growing despite the HND expansion. They opened a third terminal in 2015 for LCCs, and are in the process of building a third runway. JAL and ANA have added a ton of new NRT routes in recent years, including US destinations.
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Old Feb 22, 2019, 7:40 pm
  #92  
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Originally Posted by east_west
Haven't Princeton and Stanford left Yale in the dust? On the other hand, Guam is a great place for a vacation, way better QPR than HNL.... the better analogy might be applying to Harvard/Princeton/Stanford/UT-Austin/U.Michigan.
We're getting off topic here, but I simply treasured my time at Stanford. Princeton was my first choice because I was hoping to stay closer to home (Boston); Stanford is a really nice place!

Even more off topic, the major difference between Stanford and the Ivys is that normal people from California high schools are good for Stanford. I simply can't stress this point enough.

Last edited by moondog; Feb 22, 2019 at 7:54 pm
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Old Feb 22, 2019, 7:57 pm
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Originally Posted by moondog
We're getting off topic here, but I simply treasured my time at Stanford. Princeton was my first choice because I was hoping to stay closer to home (Boston); Stanford is a really nice place!
To get us back on topic, if UA's application goes through all of these fine institutions (and Stanford is amazing) will have good *A connectivity to HND except for Harvard! Let's hope NH fixes that...
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Old Feb 22, 2019, 7:59 pm
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Originally Posted by joejones
NRT is growing despite the HND expansion. They opened a third terminal in 2015 for LCCs, and are in the process of building a third runway. JAL and ANA have added a ton of new NRT routes in recent years, including US destinations.
They also show quite a decline in transit passengers-- roughly half the number 15 years ago, with a big drop starting ten years ago. The drop coincided with the HND expansion but also seems to have been slipping before that.

Very interesting stats! Thanks for digging those up.
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Old Feb 22, 2019, 8:37 pm
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Originally Posted by rustykettel
They also show quite a decline in transit passengers-- roughly half the number 15 years ago, with a big drop starting ten years ago. The drop coincided with the HND expansion but also seems to have been slipping before that.
I think this is more a result of airlines like UA and DL adding more nonstops between the US and China/Korea/Taiwan, not a result of the HND international expansion (which has been happening in stages since late 2010, long after the decline in transit pax started). It's also possible that passengers transiting between NRT and HND are not counted as "transit passengers" for purposes of these statistics since they are officially entering/departing Japan.

If you look at 2010 and 2011, there was a very clear drop in all categories of passengers at NRT around that time that the HND international terminal opened, but this drop was followed by a very clear recovery in O&D passenger numbers.
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Old Feb 22, 2019, 9:24 pm
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Originally Posted by joejones
I think this is more a result of airlines like UA and DL adding more nonstops between the US and China/Korea/Taiwan, not a result of the HND international expansion (which has been happening in stages since late 2010, long after the decline in transit pax started). It's also possible that passengers transiting between NRT and HND are not counted as "transit passengers" for purposes of these statistics since they are officially entering/departing Japan.

If you look at 2010 and 2011, there was a very clear drop in all categories of passengers at NRT around that time that the HND international terminal opened, but this drop was followed by a very clear recovery in O&D passenger numbers.
Are you sure the decline is not due to CA/MU/CZ/HU/MF (and lately PR) dumping capacity on TPAC routes? Has DL even added any TPAC nonstops in the last few years, except for upcoming SEA-KIX and MSP-ICN?
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Old Feb 24, 2019, 12:02 am
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HND is being expanded in part BECAUSE of ICN doing so well. ICN basically is Seoul'd NRT, except that they built a whole city around it and pretty much handicapped GMP to shorter distance flights. It seems Tokyo is doing the opposite, making their close-in airport the main player. HND has ALWAYS been a MUCH more convenient airport for most people in Japan and that's really what brings in the money.

There are 0 JL flights between NRT-KIX and only 3 daily on NH. SO, if you want to go to Osaka/Kyoto and you're flying on Oneworld... you're bussing between terminals... or you're flying to ITM... in central Osaka which isn't a terrible thing, but KIX has better rail connections.
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Old Feb 24, 2019, 6:34 am
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Originally Posted by hirohito888
Are you sure the decline is not due to CA/MU/CZ/HU/MF (and lately PR) dumping capacity on TPAC routes? Has DL even added any TPAC nonstops in the last few years, except for upcoming SEA-KIX and MSP-ICN?
hirohito888, you are right. It really does look like DL does not have much of a game plan for Asia, which is really surprising given the NW network they acquired. Some other factors: constant growth of Asian full service airlines over the last 20 years, more recently LCCs offering cheap flights from NRT to Asian cities, and DL (surprisingly) not having orders for enough long distance widebodies to overfly NRT.
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Old Feb 24, 2019, 7:50 am
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Originally Posted by uanj
hirohito888, you are right. It really does look like DL does not have much of a game plan for Asia, which is really surprising given the NW network they acquired. Some other factors: constant growth of Asian full service airlines over the last 20 years, more recently LCCs offering cheap flights from NRT to Asian cities, and DL (surprisingly) not having orders for enough long distance widebodies to overfly NRT.
I guess that DL has closer relationships with China Eastern and Korean Airlines than before. That is DL's game plan, just relying on MU and KE for Asia.
Adding more US-Japan capacity will lower the air fare. My Japanese colleagues constantly complain about the high fares to Japan. If DOT is smart, the added flights such as EWR-HND and LAX-HND (vs. switching from NRT to HND such as IAD-HND and ORD-HND) should be given a higher priority.

Last edited by Kmxu; Feb 24, 2019 at 10:43 am
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Old Feb 24, 2019, 10:06 am
  #100  
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Originally Posted by hirohito888
Are you sure the decline is not due to CA/MU/CZ/HU/MF (and lately PR) dumping capacity on TPAC routes? Has DL even added any TPAC nonstops in the last few years, except for upcoming SEA-KIX and MSP-ICN?
My understanding is their investment in SEA as a "SFO-like" pacific gateway to combat UA basically fell on its face, and their core partners in Asia are sub-standard Chinese airlines that few people in the west have any desire to fly, especially through delay-prone hubs within China. Their only decent partner there is KE, and while not terrible, we're not exactly talking about products that give *A carriers the nervous shivers.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Feb 24, 2019 at 3:32 pm Reason: OMNI content removed
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Old Feb 24, 2019, 11:38 am
  #101  
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Originally Posted by bocastephen
My understanding is their investment in SEA as a "SFO-like" pacific gateway to combat UA basically fell on its face, and their core partners in Asia are sub-standard Chinese airlines that few people in the west have any desire to fly, especially through delay-prone hubs within China. Their only decent partner there is KE, and while not terrible, we're not exactly talking about products that give *A carriers the nervous shivers.
MU is honestly pretty okay, but I love DL's KE partnership much more..

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Feb 24, 2019 at 3:33 pm Reason: quote updated to reflect Moderator edit
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Old Feb 24, 2019, 12:27 pm
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Originally Posted by bocastephen
My understanding is their investment in SEA as a "SFO-like" pacific gateway to combat UA basically fell on its face, and their core partners in Asia are sub-standard Chinese airlines that few people in the west have any desire to fly, especially through delay-prone hubs within China. Their only decent partner there is KE, and while not terrible, we're not exactly talking about products that give *A carriers the nervous shivers.
And of the two state-owned SkyTeam carriers, the better one (China Southern) quit SkyTeam after receiving $200m from AA for a bunch of codeshares and a pair of PEK slots.

By the way, this was a great move from AA, since the money wasn't a payment but an approximately 2% equity investment (7% of the shares traded in HK). It also means AA has some interesting co-shareholders.



One of the better strategic moves I've been from a US airline recently.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Feb 24, 2019 at 3:34 pm Reason: quote updated to reflect Moderator edit
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Old Feb 24, 2019, 4:46 pm
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I think the fact that they list three as their first priority and have specific time frames they have requested for those slots will give them a disadvantage to DL who, in their press release, have complete flexiblity over their slot times. Also since they request three as their first priority, are they planning on rotating the aircraft on the three routes?
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Old Feb 24, 2019, 7:06 pm
  #104  
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Originally Posted by sincx
And of the two state-owned SkyTeam carriers, the better one (China Southern) quit SkyTeam after receiving $200m from AA for a bunch of codeshares and a pair of PEK slots.

By the way, this was a great move from AA, since the money wasn't a payment but an approximately 2% equity investment (7% of the shares traded in HK). It also means AA has some interesting co-shareholders.



One of the better strategic moves I've been from a US airline recently.
While this is off topic wrt the this thread, please allow me to add a few thoughts:
1. MU honestly doesn't suck anymore; anyone who has had the chance to fly their 77Ws in J or F knows this
2. DL invested in MU, and AA invested in CZ
3. When both AA and CZ move to Daxing on 10/1, we will get a sense of the strength of their bilateral partnership
4. I can't envision CZ joining OW because: a) CX doesn't want them and b) being unaffiliated affords them to do whatever they please
5. I am honestly impressed by the DL/KE partnership; it has game changer potential
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Old Feb 24, 2019, 8:39 pm
  #105  
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Originally Posted by moondog
While this is off topic wrt the this thread, please allow me to add a few thoughts:
1. MU honestly doesn't suck anymore; anyone who has had the chance to fly their 77Ws in J or F knows this
i totally agree with the above statement. Out of China’s Big 4 airlines (Hainan being the 4th), Air China is now the worst of the lot.

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