Asia Times Online - The trusted news source for information on Japan

Japan

New carriers to receive 20 slots at Haneda airport

TOKYO - Japan Airlines Corp and All Nippon Airways Co will lose a total of 20 landing slots at Tokyo's Haneda airport, and these will be awarded to new carriers on April 1, 2005, the Transport Ministry said Tuesday.

According to the finalized plan, landing slots to be stripped from the two major airlines will be allocated to four newcomers: Skymark Airlines Co, Hokkaido International Airlines Co, Skynet Asia Airways Co, and Star Flyer Inc, the last of which is slated to launch in 2006.

The total number of landing slots that the new airlines will be able to use will increase from 47 to 67. Haneda airport currently has 387 daily landing slots, each of which represents an arrival and a departure.

However, the number of landing slots that will be redistributed is half of what the new carriers had requested. This is believed to be the result of consideration for the business conditions of the two major airlines.

"The ministry is asking us to put up with this [number of new landing slots] until 2009, and that will be difficult," said Skynet Asia Airways President Masahiro Uchiike in reference to the planned expansion of the airport in five years, which will lead to more available landing slots.

The Japan Airlines group is set to lose 15 landing slots and All Nippon Airways is set to lose 13. These numbers include their temporary landing slots that have been assigned to new carriers but are not yet being used by them.

A single landing slot at Haneda airport is said to generate 2 billion yen (US$18.3 million) per year in revenues for the airlines.

(Asia Pulse/Nikkei)

Sep 9, 2004

No material from Asia Times Online may be republished in any form without written permission.

Privacy and Legal Policies