The United States and Japan have finalized an agreement to expand available flights to and from Tokyo’s Haneda airport. According to an announcement from the State Department, the amended Open Skies agreement provides 12 additional slot pairs (12 arrivals and 12 departures daily) during daytime hours for U.S. air carriers and for Japanese carriers. The new flights are expected to begin on or around March 29, 2020.
Both U.S. and Japanese carriers have express strong interest in offering additional daytime service to Haneda, the State Department said. U.S. carriers currently operate five daytime flights and one nighttime flight daily to and from the airport.
Airlines for America, a trade organization representing U.S. airlines, applauded the new agreement expanding service to Haneda, which is Tokyo’s downtown airport. “The new flights will provide expanded opportunities for. Passengers traveling to Tokyo,” the organization said in a written statement.
Previously, Delta had announced plans to transfer its operations from Tokyo’s Narita airport to Haneda, starting in March 2020. The airline will offer seven daily flights between Haneda and Seattle, Detroit, Atlanta, Honolulu, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Portland, OR.
United Airlines has said that it will offer four daily nonstop flights to the airport out of the airline’s hubs at Newark Liberty International Airport, Chicago O’Hare, Washington Dulles and Los Angeles International Airport.
American Airlines has said that it is planning a new daily flight to Haneda from Dallas – Fort Worth and a second daily flight from Los Angeles.
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