Delta wins approval for SEA to Tokyo Haneda from DOT

[General Lee]

Delta wins Preliminary Approval for SEA to Tokyo Haneda from DOT

Delta Welcomes Preliminary DOT Approval of New Seattle -- Tokyo-Haneda Service

Proposed new flight to be latest step in Delta's international expansion in Seattle



ATLANTA, Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines today thanked the U.S. Department of Transportation for its preliminary approval of new service between Seattle and Haneda Airport in Tokyo.


"I want to thank the DOT for its preliminary approval of this service, which will provide significant benefits for consumers in the Pacific Northwest, boost the region's economy and create jobs by further strengthening ties to Asia," said Delta CEO Richard Anderson. "Business travelers in particular will benefit due to Haneda Airport's convenient access to central Tokyo."
Seattle is the largest West Coast city without nonstop service to Haneda, which is the preferred Tokyo airport for many business travelers due to its proximity to the city's central business district. The flight would complement Delta's nonstop flight between Seattle and Tokyo-Narita, which will be expanded and upgraded next year to Boeing 747-400 service.
The Haneda flight adds to Delta's growing Asian gateway in Seattle. In addition to Tokyo, Delta recently announced new service to Shanghai, and also operates flights to Beijing and Osaka, Japan.

"Today's preliminary approval would not have been possible without the overwhelming support we received from our partners at the Port of Seattle and Alaska Airlines, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Congressmen Adam Smith and Rick Larsen, and numerous business, community and airport leaders throughout the Northwest region," said Andrea Newman, Delta senior vice president – Government Affairs.


The Haneda flight, which is scheduled to begin in March 2013, will operate using Boeing 767-300ER aircraft featuring full flat-bed seats in BusinessElite, Delta's popular Economy Comfort seating and in-flight entertainment in every seat throughout the aircraft.In addition to its Asian gateway, Delta operates nonstop service to Paris and Amsterdam from Seattle. By next summer the airline will operate more than 40 daily flights to 15 destinations worldwide from Seattle.


Delta's international growth in Seattle is possible because of its partnership with Alaska Airlines, which operates a domestic hub at Settle-Tacoma International Airport. Customers of both carriers enjoy access to an expanded network under a major codesharing agreement, as well as reciprocal frequent flier benefits and airport lounge access. The new Tokyo-Haneda flight will benefit from easy connections to 55 U.S. cities on Delta and Alaska's domestic networks.






I think Hawaiian was trying for Haneda to Kona, and UAL/AA also wanted the slot. Sorry about that. Aloha!




Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[Full of LUV]

Should be great for Alaskan feed....

 

[General Lee]

Should be great for Alaskan feed....

That is why we have a SEA crew base, because of the AK feed. Trying to compete directly with someone that big in SEA would be like SWA going to ATL and trying to compete. Good luck with that. Everyone is very limited at SEA to expand due to lack of gates, even SWA, who recently announced cutting BOI and GEG from SEA. But, DL continues to add to SEA thanks to DL feed and AK feed. The nonstop to Narita will be upgraded to a 744 this Summer, and the Haneda nonstop got initial approval today. Nonstop Shanghai starts in July I believe. All of that is great for DL and AK. I wish DL could do it all by themselves in SEA, but without the extra gates and extra planes, that doesn't seem possible at the moment.


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[General Lee]

DOT backs Delta’s request to fly Seattle-Tokyo Haneda

TMAXON, Dallasnews.

On July 30, Delta Air Lines asked that it move its U.S.-Tokyo Haneda route from Detroit to Seattle. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Transportation said that was okay with DOT:

Delta got the Detroit route back when the DOT was having to divide up rights for four U.S. routes to close-in Haneda International Airport. American Airlines got a New York-Haneda route, Hawaiian Airlines got Honolulu-Haneda and Delta got two routes: Los Angeles and Detroit to Haneda.

But Delta mothballed the Detroit route fairly quickly because of low passenger traffic after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In its July application, Delta asked permission to relocate the route to Seattle:

“The marketplace has indicated that Delta’s Detroit-Haneda slots would be better utilized at Seattle. Based on its actual operating experience, Delta has found that Eastern U.S.-Haneda service is underperforming relative to the West Coast-Haneda service. Seattle is the largest U.S.-Tokyo market without nonstop Haneda service. Seattle’s West Coast location also allows for a more attractive and consumer friendly schedule that is a better fit with the Haneda operating window. Delta’s network at Seattle, together with its codeshare partner, Alaska Airlines, provides convenient and non-circuitous connections to scores of U.S. cities.”

In response to Delta’s July request, American asked that it be given the route so it could fly to Haneda from Los Angeles, a route it had also requested before it got New York routes. Hawaiian wanted to fly to Haneda from Kona, Hawaii. United Airlines wanted the rights so it could initiate San Francisco-Haneda service, a route it sought unsuccessfully in the original awards.

However, the DOT cited these reasons for approving Delta’s Seattle-Haneda request:

“In its show-cause order, the Department tentatively concluded that it would be in the public interest to allow Delta to use the opportunity for service from Seattle. Delta’s proposal would provide the first nonstop service between Haneda and Seattle and provide a number of Western U.S. cities with their first one-stop connecting service to Haneda, DOT tentatively found.”


UPDATE, 2:15 p.m.: Delta CEO Richard Anderson offered this response:

“I want to thank the DOT for its preliminary approval of this service, which will provide significant benefits for consumers in the Pacific Northwest, boost the region’s economy and create jobs by further strengthening ties to Asia. Business travelers in particular will benefit due to Haneda Airport’s convenient access to central Tokyo.”​

Keep reading for the DOT’s conclusions from its show-cause order.​

“We have tentatively decided that it is in the public interest to grant the motion of Delta to move its Detroit-Haneda slot pair to provide daily scheduled services between Seattle, Washington and Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport, rather than select an alternative use for that slot pair.

“Since we last examined the allocation of Haneda slots in the 2010 U.S.-Haneda Combination Services Allocation Proceeding, we have had the benefit of two years of U.S. carrier experience operating within the limited arrival/departure-time window at Haneda. We also now have the benefit of knowing which U.S. gateways Japanese carriers have chosen to serve with their limited slot pair allocations – Honolulu and Los Angeles for ANA; and Honolulu and San Francisco for JAL.
“Against this background, and having considered the entire record before us, we tentatively select Delta’s proposed Seattle-Haneda service. We tentatively find that Delta’s proposal would best serve the public interest by providing the first nonstop Haneda service on a significant mainland U.S.-Tokyo route that currently lacks any such service, thereby establishing a new U.S. gateway to Haneda. We tentatively find that Delta’s proposed service would further serve the public interest by providing a number of western cities with a first one-stop connecting opportunity to Haneda. We tentatively find in addition that other cities that now enjoy one-stop connections over more southerly gateways would gain the option of service over a less circuitous northwest gateway.

“Allowing Delta to move from Detroit to Seattle would also advance one of the prime objectives we sought to achieve in our last Haneda proceeding, namely, seeking with our limited number of Haneda opportunities to address a diversity of public interest goals. We tentatively find that an outcome that brings first-time Haneda service and first U.S.-flag Haneda service to the sixth-largest O&D market, while also promoting the geographic diversity of the U.S.-Haneda gateways, would be consistent with our established approach for the award of limited Haneda slot opportunities and would best serve the public interest.

“The competing carriers argue that Delta’s proposal should not be selected because the Seattle-Tokyo O&D market is the smallest proposed in this proceeding. We tentatively find, however, that only Delta’s proposal would open Haneda access to a new region of the country, the Pacific Northwest, resulting in a greater number of service options for the traveling public.

“We have also considered the competing carriers’ argument that Delta’s connecting services rely too heavily on services operated by its code-share partner Alaska. Alaska points out, however, that its marketing relationship with Delta is more comprehensive than traditional code-share arrangements, and that Alaska and Delta regularly adjust their schedules to facilitate effective connections. Also, Delta notes that Alaska provides effective feed traffic for Delta’s other Seattle services to Asia. Therefore, we tentatively find that the proposed connections, offered through Delta’s marketing relationship with Alaska, further support the viability of Delta’s proposed new gateway service and grant of Delta’s motion.

“We tentatively find that the public benefits that would be achieved by our tentative selection outweigh the benefits of the other applications.

“We recognize that American would provide service in the largest U.S.-Tokyo market proposed in this proceeding. However, we note that Los Angeles already has two daily nonstop flights to Haneda. Delta serves Los Angeles-Haneda with its own flights, and United offers Los Angeles-Haneda service through its code share with ANA. Given the very limited opportunities for U.S. carrier service to Haneda, we tentatively do not find American’s arguments persuasive for adding more Haneda service at Los Angeles while other significant U.S.-Tokyo gateways have no access to Haneda.

“United’s proposal offers certain notable attributes. It would offer the first U.S.-carrier nonstop service using its own aircraft in the sizeable San Francisco-Haneda market, the second largest U.S.-Tokyo O&D market in this case. United also would offer an extensive number of on-line connections through its San Francisco hub to an appreciable catchment area. On balance, however, we tentatively find that our public interest objectives in this proceeding would be better served by establishing the first U.S.-flag nonstop Haneda service of any sort at Seattle. While San Francisco may not have service to Haneda from a U.S. carrier operating its own aircraft, American offers daily nonstop San Francisco-Haneda service through its code share with JAL. While United’s San Francisco hub might arguably reach more passengers than the combined Delta/Alaska hub at Seattle, we tentatively find that the Delta proposal offers important advantages of its own in terms of catchment area. Specifically, we note that Delta will provide more new cities with first one stop Haneda service than United; that it will better serve the Pacific Northwest; and that, in a number of cases, service via Seattle is less circuitous than service over San Francisco. Against this background, we tentatively find that an award to Delta represents the better allocation of this limited Haneda opportunity.

“While we note that Kona currently lacks nonstop service to Tokyo, we recognize that the State of Hawaii now enjoys three of the eight total U.S.-Haneda route-opportunities available to U.S. and Japanese carriers. Consistent with our ongoing goal of using our limited Haneda rights to address a variety of public interest objectives, including the objective of geographically diverse gateways, we tentatively find that the public interest would be better served by opening Haneda nonstop access to a new region of the country, the Pacific Northwest, than by allocating a fourth Haneda route to Hawaii.

“Our tentative decision to allow Delta to move its slot pair to Seattle is limited to the proposal considered in this proceeding. Should any carrier, including Delta, currently serving Haneda wish to change its gateway, it should expect a comparable comparative selection proceeding to determine whether it is in the public interest to allow the carrier to do so.

“We have tentatively decided to impose a startup condition for this award. If our tentative decision is made final, we will require Delta to institute its proposed services within 90 days after the service date of such a final order in this proceeding. In addition, we propose that the slot pair allocated in this proceeding be subject to a 90-day dormancy condition, wherein any slot pair not utilized for a period of 90 days (once inaugurated) would be deemed dormant and revert to the Department.”



Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[180ToTheMarker]

Hey GL, are you saying that Haneda is better than Lubbock?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[General Lee]

Hey GL, are you saying that Haneda is better than Lubbock?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Well, it is tougher to get a landing slot there compared to LBB. Other than that, I guess the Corndogs would probably prefer LBB, but that was a given. They "already flew INTL" in previous lives, and NEVER want to do long haul again, they have stated..... Yeah, that's the ticket....




Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[PBRstreetgang]

Ok Genny,
You can zip up your pants and put down the padded tweezers, punishing your mini unit because your companyis flying to Haneda is like getting a mini chubb over some poor SWA guy off the taxiway, it's pointless. Being on the ignore list rocks, I can mock him/it and it doesn't even know it.

 

[General Lee]

PBRstreetgang This user is on your Ignore List.



Delta wins right for third daily Atlanta-Heathrow flight
November 16, 2012

Delta this week was awarded a pair of takeoff and landing slots to operate new nonstop service between London-Heathrow and Atlanta, adding a third daily flight between the two cities next year.

The Atlanta-Heathrow route is among the most profitable flights in Delta's transatlantic network, CEO Richard Anderson said in his weekly Right from Richard message to employees. It can be difficult, however, to obtain slots at the right times to operate as much service as we would like, he said.

American Airlines and United Airlines were required to give up some slots in order to gain approval for their transatlantic alliance. The European Union's competition authorities concluded that Delta was the best carrier to operate the service, which will begin at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport with a stop in Atlanta.

The flight will be operated with Boeing 767-400 aircraft and is scheduled to begin in March 2013.



Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[Dumb Pilot]

Oh great, more butchering of standard phraseology.......!

LOL! Just a little humor guys, breath in....breath out.......think a happy place.

 

[HA25]

I think Hawaiian was trying for Haneda to Kona, and UAL/AA also wanted the slot. Sorry about that. Aloha!




Bye Bye---General Lee

I don't think we're out of the running for that yet...