Northwest Airlines Strengthens U.S. Service To Japan
<B>Northwest Airlines Strengthens U.S. Service To Japan</B>
By Judy Jacobs
Northwest Airlines has increased its U.S. service to Osaka and expanded its codeshare alliance with Japan Air System, Japan's third largest carrier. Both moves are expected to strengthen Kansai International Airport's position as a gateway to Japan for businesses and business travelers.
The daily nonstop service is operating this summer between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Osaka. This is the third time Northwest has started service on this route, beginning in the summer of 1997. At that time it ran year-round. After October 1998, the service was halted and resumed in the summer of 1999.
"Our goal is to get it back to daily year-round service," said Doug Killian, the carrier's spokesman. The flights operate using B747-200 aircraft, and Minneapolis joins four other U.S. cities--Detroit, Honolulu, Seattle and Los Angeles--from which Northwest flies to Osaka. Like the Detroit service, Minneapolis provides a link between the U.S. heartland and one of Japan's most important economic centers.
"Osaka is the industrial heartland of Japan," said Douglas Steenland, Northwest's executive vice president and chief corporate officer. "Northwest's new nonstop service puts Minnesota companies within 12 hours flight time of this key economic region."
Japan's Kansai region, of which Osaka is the largest city, has a population of more than 23 million--as many people as Minnesota, Michigan, Tennessee and Washington combined--and a gross domestic product greater than Canada's.
In addition to Osaka's importance as an economic center, the city's Kansai International Airport is a major transportation hub, linking it and the region with the rest of Japan and other important business travel destinations.
Unlike Tokyo, where passengers must make the grueling 90-minute journey from Narita to Haneda for a domestic connection, in Osaka they only need descend two floors to check in for their onward flights. And with more codeshare arrangements, the process will get even easier. On July 1, Sapporo, Japan, will become the latest destination in Northwest's codeshare alliance with JAS.
Northwest began a partnership with JAS in 1997 by reciprocating frequent flyer programs. The two introduced codeshare service to Okinawa and Fukuoka, the industrial and economic center of the southern island of Kyushu, last August.
Sapporo serves as the economic hub of Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four main islands, and the destination of millions of business travelers each year. The airlines that fly between Sapporo and Tokyo, in fact, carry a total of some 7.4 million passengers per year. The route is said to be the busiest in the world--and the most profitable.