The U.S. Department of Transportation late last week denied Delta Air Lines' request for flexibility in the transpacific service it is permitted to offer between the U.S. and Tokyo's Haneda Airport.
The carrier had asked DOT to institute a three-year pilot program to allow it and the other U.S. airlines that hold Haneda slots the flexibility to change the U.S. destinations from which it would offer Haneda service. Two of those carriers, American Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, agreed with Delta's request, but the third, United Airlines, strongly objected.
The DOT on Friday ruled that the carriers for now could not change the destinations from which they were authorized in 2019 to provide service.
"The Department’s daytime Haneda slot allocations were reached through highly contested comparative selection proceedings involving far more carrier demand for slots than availability, and included the opportunity for many interested communities to express their support for proposals that would provide service between them and Haneda," according to the DOT ruling. "Allowing carriers to now select at their discretion a different U.S. gateway would defeat the Department’s rationale for selection of the existing carriers and gateways over other competing applicants and would undermine the Department’s public interest determinations made for the benefit of the traveling and shipping public."
Delta currently operates direct routes between Haneda and five U.S. airports: Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Seattle/Tacoma. It also has DOT approval for service to Honolulu and Portland, Ore., but does not plan to restart post-pandemic direct service until the fall of 2023. Delta in its filing did not indicate the specifics of any citypair switches it might pursue.
United, in a May filing with DOT objecting to Delta's plan, had suggested DOT reopen route authorization proceedings, but the agency for now denied that request, noting that DOT in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic had relaxed slot usage requirements through Oct. 28, 2023. Carriers must notify DOT by Oct. 1 if they plan not to restart service on those routes by that date.
"We believe that it would be premature to institute further regulatory proceedings on existing Haneda slot pair allocations," according to DOT.
United operates direct routes between Haneda and Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco and Washington Dulles.