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

Several foreign carriers have announced plans to start service to Tokyo Haneda Airport following the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's (MLITT) decision last month to allocate 25 daytime slots at the downtown Tokyo airport to non-Japanese airlines in time for the Summer 2020 season.

It is recalled that as part of its decision, the ministry awarded the slots as follows:

• United States: 12;
• China: 4;
• Russia: 2;
• Australia: 2;
• India: 1;
• Italy: 1;
• Turkey: 1;
• Finland: 1;
• Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, and Norway): 1.

Thus far, the applicant countries have awarded the slots as follows:

• United States: Delta Air Lines (5), United Airlines (4), American Airlines (2), and Hawaiian Airlines (1);
• China: TBD;
• Russia: TBD;
• Australia: Pending confirmation, Australia’s International Air Services Commission (IASC) has provisionally decided to award one slot to each of Qantas and Virgin Australia;
• India: TBD;
• Italy: Alitalia - daily Rome Fiumicino-Tokyo Haneda to start from March 29,...

The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) tentatively approved the formation of a joint venture between Hawaiian Airlines (HA, Honolulu) and JAL - Japan Airlines (JL, Tokyo Haneda) but denied the carriers' request for antitrust immunity.

"The decision... is based upon the Department's tentative findings that the proposed commercial agreements are not adverse to the public interest because they would not substantially reduce competition, but that antitrust immunity (ATI) is not required by the public interest because, as currently structured, the agreements would not offer consumers any more benefits than they would be likely to obtain through ordinary commercial cooperation without ATI," the DOT said.

The Department said that the partnership as such is unlikely to distort competition on the Hawaii-Japan market and as such, it will not be "adverse to the public interest".

According to the ch-aviation capacities module, JAL and Hawaiian have a combined market share of 50.6% by capacity between Japan and Hawaii. Star Alliance and JV partners United Airlines and ANA - All Nippon Airways...

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...