American Airlines And United Airlines Continue Battle For Tokyo Haneda Slot

American Airlines has submitted a consolidated reply to the DOT to back its proposed nonstop service between John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York and Tokyo Haneda International (HND). The DOT is looking into American Airlines' and United Airlines' proposals. The latter wants to launch a Houston-Tokyo Haneda route. Delta Air Lines relinquished one daily slot at Tokyo Haneda, creating competition between United Airlines and American Airlines. Both legacy carriers want to obtain this coveted slot and launch a new intercontinental flight. Earlier this month, the DOT launched a comparative selection procedure to select which airline to allocate this daily slot. American Airlines argued to the DOT that its proposal is overwhelmingly additive and creates new net flights to Tokyo. Instead, United will not create new net flights since it flies daily from Houston to Tokyo’s second airport, Narita. Moreover, if United gets the slot, it would scrap the flight to Narita, opting instead to serve the more centric Tokyo Haneda. American Airlines argued, “If the Department awards this Haneda slot pair to United, Houston would still have two daily nonstop services to Tokyo, just as Houston has today (...). In fact, Houston will be in the same position (twice daily service to Tokyo) if American is awarded the available Haneda slot pair.” The airport pair Tokyo Haneda-New York JFK currently has 28 weekly flights. These services are all operated by Japanese carriers, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, each with 14 weekly flights. United Airlines also flies to the Tokyo area from Newark International (EWR), flying daily to Haneda and Narita. United Airlines said in a filing that it is best positioned to offer a top-notch service to Tokyo Haneda from Houston Intercontinental Airport. This is due to United Airlines' robust network of flights to the Asia/Pacific region.<br/>