Narita and Centrair’s pain is Tokyo Haneda’s gain
Shares in Tokyo Haneda Airport terminal operator, Japan Air Terminal, rose 3% yesterday, as Japan Airlines announced plans to slash an unprecedented 31 domestic routes (or 20% of its domestic network) by the end of fiscal 2010, as part of its corporate rehabilitation programme.
JAL will reportedly abandon 13 domestic routes to/from Central Japan International Airport (Centrair, also known as Chubu) to concentrate resources at the more profitable Tokyo Haneda Airport, while it is also paring back its international network at Narita Airport amid ongoing losses in international markets.
Meanwhile, foreign carriers are lining up for coveted access to Haneda Airport. On 01-Apr-2010, Singapore Airlines (SQ) announced plans to launch twice daily Singapore-Tokyo Haneda service with B777-300ER equipment on 31-Oct-2010, complementing existing twice daily service to Narita. More will arrive when Haneda opens its fourth runway for the Winter 2010/11 schedule.
Expansion is already occurring in short-haul markets. Both Korean Air and Asiana Airlines will operate weekend red-eye charter flights between Korea's Busan and Haneda. Korean Air will operate its twice weekly flights to Haneda using a B737-900 from 16-Apr-2010 until 25-Oct-2010. Asiana will use an A320 to operate the new service from 30-Apr-2010 to 25-Oct-2010, according to Korea Airports Corp's 2010 Summer Schedule. These flights will utilise Haneda's overnight slots and beats Busan's 11 pm - 6 am curfew time. Busan is likely to get two pairs of daytime slots at Haneda, which were allocated to Korea recently.
Elsewhere in Asia, Beijing Airport's shares slipped 2.4% yesterday.
Selected airports daily share price movements (% change): 05-Apr-2010
Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation & Yahoo! Finance