American Airlines Suspends Two of Six Daily Japan Flights as Demand Falls
American Suspends Two U.S.-Japan Flights as Demand Falls
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
An AMR Corp. American Airlines plane takes off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
An AMR Corp. American Airlines plane takes off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
American Airlines suspended two of six daily Japan flights on declining demand as it prepared to start a revenue-sharing joint venture with Japan Airlines Corp.
American will drop a daily flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy International to Tokyo’s Haneda airport and one of two daily trips from Dallas-Fort Worth International to Narita starting April 6, said Ed Martelle, an American spokesman.
The airline on April 1 will kick off the partnership with Japan Airlines that lets them jointly set fares and flight schedules, sell tickets and share revenue. American joined Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) among U.S. carriers temporarily dropping some flights to Japan because demand tumbled following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
“It’s purely due to passenger demand,” Martelle said yesterday, declining to quantify the drop in traffic since the quake, which also crippled a nuclear power plant and released radiation. “Both carriers understand this is a temporary situation, so there is no reason for it to have a lasting impact” on the joint business.
Japan Airlines, Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd., Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Singapore Airlines Ltd., China Airlines Ltd. and South Korea’s Asiana Airlines Inc. all have trimmed capacity to Japan since the earthquake as travel has fallen. Several other carriers, including British Airways Plc and Air France, have added stops on flights in other Japanese cities so crews don’t have to overnight in Tokyo.
Reinstatement Plans
American, a unit of Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp. (AMR), will retain its four remaining daily flights. The carrier will reinstate the suspended ones on April 26 while continuing to monitor the situation “and make whatever changes we have to make,” Martelle said.
In addition to the second daily flight from Dallas-Fort Worth, American is retaining departures from Chicago and Los Angeles and one daily route between Kennedy and Narita. American is the third-biggest U.S. provider of service to Japan, following Delta and United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL)
American is seeing an increase in bookings for Japan flights on April 29 and May 3 through 5, when the country’s “Golden Week” occurs, said Jim Faulkner, an airline spokesman. That is an annual vacation period in Japan when four national holidays occur, almost consecutively, allowing many to take the entire week off.
Outbound Bookings Rise
“We’ve seen an uptick in advance bookings on outbounds from Japan then,” Faulkner said.
Delta, based in Atlanta, said March 22 it was suspending service to Haneda while maintaining operations at Narita, Japan’s main overseas gateway.
United Continental continues to operate all of its regular Japan routes and hasn’t trimmed flights, said Christen David, a spokeswoman for the Chicago-based carrier. There has been “steady demand” for Japan-U.S. travel, although the company has seen “measurable decline” in travel to Japan, she said.
United Continental isn’t operating its flight from Guam to Sendai, Japan, because of damage to that airport from the quake and tsunami, David said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas at maryc.s@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ed Dufner at edufner@bloomberg.net
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