The fight over slots at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport is ramping up once again now that at least one daily abandoned slot is in play. United has been the first and most aggressive at trying to gain more flying at the airport, but it won’t gain any ground without a fight.
This all came out of Delta’s decision to kill plans for the Portland (OR) – Haneda route. Delta had been flying to Narita for years, but it was able to get DOT to award it a Haneda slot for the route after it threw a fit. During the pandemic, there were waivers that allowed airlines not to use their slots but still keep them. Those waivers expire at the end of this month.
Both Portland and Honolulu showed weak demand post-pandemic, so Delta begged for flexibility to use those two slots elsewhere. It failed in that effort. After thinking through it, Delta decided that it would fly Honolulu – Haneda and try to make that work, but Portland was just a no-go. It opted to give back the slot to be used elsewhere.
Almost immediately, United jumped into the fray. It wanted that Portland slot which it would use to fly from Houston/IAH. United’s partner ANA already flies that 1x daily, but United wants its own metal on the route. Sure, it already flies 1x daily to Narita, but Narita has its own challenges, as we all know.
Because of the Godzilla problem (and probably a few other reasons), Haneda is by far the preferred airport for locals. This would include locals going to Houston but also those going through Houston. Think of all those Latin American connections that must look rather appealing. Narita is great for connections within Asia, so there is a purpose for both. But for the Japanese traveler in general, Haneda wins.
United didn’t stop there. There is a single night-time slot for Haneda to the US which is virtually unusable due to time zones for most service. Hawai’i is the exception. Hawaiian has had that split between 3x weekly from Kona and 4x weekly from Honolulu for awhile now. United, however, noticed that through winter, Hawaiian is only scheduled at roughly 1x weekly in each. So, United wants to pick up the rest.
The only other market where a night flight makes sense is Guam, and United wants to fly that currently-unflown route 5x weekly. Narita is well-served from Guam by Japan Airlines, Jeju Air, and United already. While Narita may not be preferred by locals, it is generally accepted as a primary low-cost/leisure airport. Guam works from there, but United thinks it can get a leg up by flying from Haneda as well.
In each of these cases, there is vehement opposition. On the Guam route, it’s Hawaiian. Hawaiian says it’ll be back up to full speed next year, and it just needs time to ramp up. United says that’s ridiculous, and if it isn’t ramped up by December 1, DOT should give the unused slots away. It’s unlikely there would be much interest from other airlines, so this is really United just trying to grab the asset, and in an aggressive way. Please enjoy United’s barbed response to Hawaiian.
Meanwhile for that Houston route, United’s only competition so far is from American Airlines. American wants that slot to go back into the New York/JFK – Haneda market. Didn’t it already fly that and walk away once? Oh yes, it did.
Between February 2011 and September 2011, American flew the route on and off. Then, from June 2012 through November 2013, it was a daily service. That was a total of 662 flights each way, all of which undoubtedly burned cash like you’ve never seen.
The problem at the time was that this slot was only for nighttime operations. That means from Haneda, the flight left just before 7am and arrived in New York at about the same time. In the other direction, the flight departed JFK around 6 or 7pm and arrived at the oh-so-undesirable hour of 10:15pm.
It was so bad that American eventually walked away and the slot was handed elsewhere. Now it wants back in since daytime slots are the norm.
This is somewhat of a surprise to me. I figured it would ask for a 2nd DFW flight, but maybe it made the calculation that a bid like that wouldn’t win. New York, however, might have a shot. After all, no US carrier flies from JFK to Haneda — yes, United flies from Newark — but both ANA and Japan Airlines fly double-daily. American is, of course, in a joint venture with Japan Airlines so it is not really missing out.
This route is a risk. Yes, it does fit American’s general profile of wanting to serve the big financial capitals from New York, but it used to fly to Narita until it left there in 2012. If Tokyo was that important, it could have gone back to Narita at any time. And at the same time, it has its partner JAL to do the heavy lifting anyway.
It’s a fact that slots make airlines do stupid things. And in this case, it’s not clear that any of these options make sense. That being said, we may not be done. Delta may very well have a plan of its own, though it would presumably just be an additional frequency to an existing hub. That might be tough to convince DOT to re-award the slot back to Delta, but eventually, it has no choice but to pick a winner.
