The Battle Continues between American and Delta Over Tokyo

by Points, Miles & Martinis

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The battle between American Airlines and Delta Air Lines continues over service to Tokyo’s Haneda airport. To find out why the airlines are fighting, I’ll let you read this Bloomberg article which explains it in detail.

Tokyo

Per Bloomberg Business,

 

The U.S. decision was the latest development in an almost yearlong spat between the carriers for one of only four existing routes between the U.S. and Haneda, which many business travelers prefer over Tokyo’s Narita International Airport because it is closer to the Japanese capital. Delta gave up one of those routes to American in June after a fight between the two airlines, but argued in an Oct. 1 filing that its rival should cede the route after it didn’t start service within 60 days. 

Bottom Line
Tokyo Haneda is much closer into the city than Tokyo Nartia, which is why many airlines are fighting to get service there. The last thing you want to do after a long flight from the US, is take another long journey into Tokyo.
Have you flown into Tokyo before? If so, what airport do you prefer Narita or Haneda?
Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or suggestions expressed on this site are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed.

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Comments

  1. Something about the U.S. Haneda routes in question doesn’t add up, there must be something else
    to the story – which we’re not being told. That stems from the fact that there are only a few slots allocated to U.S. carriers to fly U.S.-HND. Seattle has service via ANA to NRT and LAX to NRT. So one would think that both carriers would have jumped at flying daily to HND. Instead both have stalled. Maybe Hawaiian deserves to service them as both AA and Delta, for unknown reasons, won’t pony up an aircraft to fly to a prime airport. Very odd.

  2. @Steve R: Maybe it’s because (1) the Japanese economy is weak and (2) Japanese travelers are probably going to fly a Japanese carrier, at least the business travelers on expensive premium tickets.

    This reminds me of the problems not long when Americans often had to fly in and out of Gatwick, instead of London’s Heathrow.

    I’m curious what’s going to happen at NRT as it seems like Delta is really pivoting toward Seattle. Flights to Hong Kong will cease soon.

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