All Nippon Airways to retire the 747-400(D) by March 2014

Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane Int'l) has applied for one daily slot at Tokyo Haneda out of two recently allocated to Australian carriers, Reuters has reported. Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) has applied for both slots at the Tokyo gateway.

Virgin Australia did not disclose from which Australian hub it would like to serve Haneda and has not yet lodged an application with the International Air Services Commission (IASC). The airline does not currently serve Japan, the ch-aviation schedules module shows.

Virgin's international long-haul network currently comprises of services to Hong Kong Int'l (from Melbourne Tullamarine and Sydney Kingsford Smith) and to Los Angeles Int'l (from Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane Int'l). The carrier is undergoing restructuring and plans to conclude its network review by the end of 2019.

For its part, Qantas said in an application to the IASC that it would like to launch a second daily service to Haneda from Sydney and transfer the existing daily Melbourne-Tokyo Narita route to Haneda.

According...

JAL - Japan Airlines (JL, Tokyo Haneda) is planning to transfer its Moscow operations from Moscow Domodedovo to Moscow Sheremetyevo with the onset of the Summer 2020 season, the latter airport's spokesperson told Interfax.

The transfer will coincide with the relocation from Tokyo Narita to Tokyo Haneda, ch-aviation understands.

JAL has recently been awarded slots at Haneda to operate the service to Moscow but contingent on establishing a codeshare partnership with Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo). In order to develop such a partnership, the Japanese airline chose to start serving the Russian carrier's main base.

According to the ch-aviation schedules, JAL currently flies daily between Tokyo and Moscow using B787-8s. Aeroflot also operates daily from Sheremetyevo to Narita using B777-300(ER)s.

During the last round of slot allocations, ANA - All Nippon Airways was also granted one daily slot at Haneda for services to Russia. The airline does not currently serve the country. Two daily slots at Haneda were also granted to Russian airlines.

Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLITT) has finalised its allocation of 50 Tokyo Haneda airport daytime slots that will become available for use from March 29, 2020. Next year, Tokyo will be the site of the 2020 Olympiac Games which the Japanese government is looking to fully exploit by attracting 40 million visitors.

Of the 50 slots, 25 have been allocated to Japanese carriers while the other 25 have been reserved for their foreign counterparts. The distribution is as follows:

• United States: 12 slots for Japanese carriers (JAL - Japan Airlines gaining six and ANA - All Nippon Airways six) and 12 for foreign carriers;
• China: four slots for Japanese carriers (JAL and ANA each gaining two) and four for foreign carriers (MLITT also confirmed that restrictions on capacity related to Tokyo Narita, Beijing, and Shanghai will be greatly relaxed);
• Russia: two slots for Japanese carriers (JAL and ANA each gaining one) and two for foreign carriers;
• Australia: two slots for Japanese carriers (JAL and ANA each...

Peach Aviation (MM, Osaka Kansai) has said it will suspend flights or reduce frequencies between Japan and South Korea as the rift between the two countries deepens, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Eight South Korean carriers including Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, and Korea Express Air have already announced reduced services or cancelled routes to neighbouring Japan. But Peach is believed to be the first Japanese airline to respond to the rising tensions and declining numbers of South Koreans making the trip, it said on August 30.

The ANA - All Nippon Airways LCC subsidiary will indefinitely stop services between Sapporo Chitose and Seoul Incheon from October 28, a route that only launched on April 25. Its Osaka Kansai-Busan route will be dropped from January 7, 2020, while Okinawa Naha-Incheon will be suspended next year from January 28 to February 22. The developments are all due to a lack of demand from South Korea, the carrier said.

All three affected routes are daily. Currently, 56 of...