Virgin Australia wins backing for Haneda slot

Virgin Australia has received valuable support from regulatory and tourism bodies as it vies with Qantas for new access to Tokyo Haneda Airport. The Japanese government has allocated two additional Haneda slots to Australian carriers as part of a planned capacity expansion at the airport. The slots will be awarded to airlines by Australia’s International Air Services Commission. Qantas has applied for both slots, to operate flights from Melbourne and Sydney to Haneda, while Virgin has requested one slot for a flight from Brisbane. Qantas already serves both of Tokyo’s airports, while Virgin currently has no service to Japan. In a submission to the IASC, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recommended the airlines receive one slot each. Such an approach “would promote competition to a much greater extent than allocating both frequencies to Qantas,” the ACCC said. The ACCC noted that Virgin serves Japan via codeshares on foreign carriers, so flying the Tokyo route with its own aircraft would make it a much more effective player in this market.<br/>