LAX HND

[WorldTraveler]

Poor Delta and United with there fifth freedom rights. I cant imagine the DOT not giving this open slot to one of them. What in the world does AA need with new service?

except 5th freedom rights are rights to fly beyond Japan to other Asian countries. It doesn't apply to access to HND.
The US and Japan have Open Skies, limited by slots at both NRT and HND. It's the same situation, BTW, that faced CO, DL, NW, and US after LHR opened due to EU Open Skies.... the difference is that AA, the dominant US airline chose a partner with BA, the dominant British airline at LHR.
In Japan, the #2 US airline to Japan, UA, chose the #2 Japanese transpac airline while the #1 Japanese transpac airline, JL, chose, the #3 US transpac airline.

The same protectionist policies for the largest airport, HND, exist as existed at LHR. Japan has managed to limit access to HND even after Open Skies, something that the UK did not do w/ LHR.

The same principle applies to GRU, the largest market in S. America until 2014 when GRU is supposed to open a new terminal that should increase capacity to allow Open Skies between the US and all of Brazil; all airports in Brazil except metro São Paulo have Open Skies with the US now on a practical basis.

IMO, granting HA its HND slots so that it can fly Japanese tourists on holiday to Hawai'i was a massive waste of scarce resources - HND slots. Better to give that slot to DL or UA than reward a carrier that could have accomplished its goals by seeking NRT slots instead. Sort of like the situation when NW sought more China frequencies and UA, AA and CO all screamed that NW should not be in line to get more scarce China frequencies until it began using its flexible China rights nonstop from the mainland instead of NRT-China.

the irony is that Chinese frequencies are free for the asking and Japanese frequencies - to HND anyway- are on US carrier shopping lists.

 

[eolesen]

I'll have to verify, but I seem to recall that the slots at HND for long-haul are quite restrictive -- JL can't easily swap something used for HND-ITM for AA to use on HND-LAX, whereas AA and BA could swap a LHR-EDI slot for LHR-DFW.

And it's not a matter of widebody vs. narrowbody... over half the operation at HND is widebodies.

Eqpt    Ops    Seats
767    185    46250
777    87    26100
772    51    15300
773    41    14760
73H    95    14250
744    28    12600
763    36    10800
737    69    10350
333    15    5025
320    33    4950
734    14    2100
735    16    2080
738    11    1650
M90    10    1420
332    3    900
321    4    740
788    2    500
757    2    400
330    1    300
E70    4    280
DH8    2    80

and here's a snapshot of just JL's HND operation for today:

Eqpt    Ops    Seats
767    57    14250
777    45    13500
73H    77    11550
773    12    4320
744    5    2250
333    3    1005
M90    7    994
E70    4    280

 

[FWAAA]

The JAL schedule for today at HND shows five 744 flights - but I thought JAL retired all of its 747s. Perhaps those are contracted by JAL to cover short-term demand?

 

[eolesen]

The JAL schedule for today at HND shows five 744 flights - but I thought JAL retired all of its 747s. Perhaps those are contracted by JAL to cover short-term demand?

My bad -- I didn't filter out codewhoring.

Two are CX metal to HKG, and three are KE metal to GMP...