Tokyo Narita Begins New Runway, Opens U.S. Options
<B>Tokyo Narita Begins New Runway, Opens U.S. Options</B>
By Maria Lenhart
Construction started in April on a new runway for Tokyo Narita International Airport, a project delayed for more than 30 years by farmers refusing to give up their land. Expected to reach completion by May 2002, the runway will enable airlines serving Narita to expand flight service, which currently is in a holding pattern due to lack of airport capacity. But while airlines are pleased that the new runway is going forward, they are disappointed that it will be too short to allow for jumbo jets to land, therefore rendering it useless for transpacific service.
Original plans called for a 1.6 mile runway, but airport officials had to settle for a 1.4 mile strip after they were unable to reach a compromise with local farmers. Airport officials are eager to get the new runway completed in advance of soccer's 2002 World Cup, which is expected to bring in many thousands of international visitors. Despite being one of the world's busiest airports, Narita has offered just one runway since opening in 1978.
In the meantime, airlines serving Narita are hopeful that the new runway will relieve congestion at the airport and allow for some expansion. "It's too bad that the runway won't accommodate transpacific flights, but at least it will take the pressure off the existing runway," said Northwest Airlines spokesman Doug Killian. "Some of the domestic and inter-Asia flights that now use the main runway will be able to use the smaller one."
While a lot of airlines are expected to compete for new air service slots made possible by the second runway, Northwest is unlikely to be among them. "Right now, there are actually too many seats between Japan and the U.S.," said Killian. "The Japanese economy is still in recovery so there really isn't enough traffic to justify additional service." However, the airline has been beefing up feeder service to its U.S. gateways to Tokyo. The most recent example is new daily service between San Diego and Los Angeles, designed to connect with Northwest flights to Tokyo and Osaka. Also new is a codeshare agreement between Northwest and Japan Air Systems on JAS flights out of Narita to the Japanese cities of Sapporo, Fukuoka and Okinawa.
An airline that does hope to increase service with the new runway is All Nippon Airways, which has greatly expanded transpacific service to Narita in recent years and now has six U.S. gateways: Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Airline spokesman Tom Fredo acknowledged that competition for new service will be fierce: "At this point, we don't know how many new slots we will get and we probably won't know until the fall of 2001," he said. "A lot of airlines that fly to Narita want more slots and, at the same time, a lot of other airlines want to get into Narita. So we're not counting on this making a big difference for us, but it will help."
Meanwhile, ANA recently expanded its regional service out of Narita, with new twice-weekly service to Shanghai. The airline also recently renovated its two business class lounges at Narita with new carpeting and furniture.
A new carrier serving Narita is Air Canada, which recently inaugurated daily nonstop service between Tokyo and Toronto, picking up a route that had been discontinued by Canadian Airlines last year. Hoping to attract U.S. passengers, the airline is providing feeder connections from Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Newark and Raleigh-Durham. Using 284-seat, A340 aircraft, the Air Canada service offers a morning departure from Toronto with a midday arrival in Tokyo that allows for same-day connections to other cities in Asia, including Singapore and Bangkok. To promote the service, the airline is offering double bonus miles until Aug. 31 for those traveling on the new route for the first time.