Tokyo Haneda

Japan has opened 12 slots at Haneda airport for US carrier in advance of the 2020 Olympics. Haneda is much closer to downtown than Narita, so it should be more attractive to the premium traveler. It takes an hour by train to get from Narita to downtown Tokyo. Haneda is connected by monorail. Nineteen proposals were received and they have to reduce the proposed routes down to 12

Proposed (19 slots)
Hawaiian – 3 slots Hawaiian has only asked for one route, Honolulu to Haneda, but up to three times a day.
United – 6 slots Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Houston, Washington, and Guam.
Delta – 6 slots They want to fly to Hawaii twice a day, Portland, Seattle, Detroit, and Atlanta.
American – 4 slots Los Angeles, Dallas (twice a day) and to Las Vegas.


My prediction is that they will treat the airlines equally. Although Honolulu is not normally considered a business destination, it is popular with the Japanese
Hawaiian – 3 slots Honolulu to Haneda, but up to three times a day.
United – 3 slots Los Angeles, Chicago, New York
Delta – 3 slots They want to fly Seattle, Portland, and Atlanta.
American – 3 slots Los Angeles, Dallas (twice a day)

It looks like you don't think Las Vegas will get one. Does Las Vegas currently have any direct flights to Japan?

Quote: DRich

It looks like you don't think Las Vegas will get one. Does Las Vegas currently have any direct flights to Japan?

Nonstops from Vegas to Japan were initiated twenty years ago, but they were discontinued. Right now there are nonstop to Beijing.

If Vegas begins flying to Japan again, they will fly to Narita. Since Vegas is not going to sell many business or first class seats, they might as well fly from the more distant airport. I think that proposal was just a placeholder so the Japanese government has an easy one to dismiss.

In the most recent month for which statistics are available (August 2018) here are the destinations of passengers from Tokyo by percent

19.4% Honolulu, HI
15.6% Los Angeles, CA
8.8% Chicago, IL
8.0% San Francisco, CA
6.9% Guam, TT
6.5% New York, NY
5.3% Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
3.7% Houston, TX
3.7% Washington, DC
2.8% Seattle, WA
2.7% Newark, NJ
2.2% Detroit, MI
2.1% Atlanta, GA
2.0% Kona, HI
2.0% Minneapolis, MN
1.6% Denver, CO
1.6% Portland, OR
1.4% San Diego, CA
1.4% Boston, MA
1.1% San Jose, CA

I think it is a little bit surprising that San Francisco was not proposed by United.

There is heavy traffic to Guam but it is all tourist traffic.

I don't book Japan much these days. China I book a ton.

Quote: terapined

I don't book Japan much these days. China I book a ton.

At first that seemed odd as traffic from Japan is still slightly higher than China. then I realized that it was all going to Honolulu and Guam. Chinese traffic LAX, SFO, JFK is much higher than Japan. So more business traffic.

Of course China has over 10X the population of Japan.