Tokyo Haneda slot allocations fail to generate new flights as Europeans replace Narita operations

All Nippon Airways and Lufthansa have allocated the four lucrative slots they collectively received for service to Tokyo's Haneda airport. All four slots will be used to shift existing services at Narita to Haneda, although ANA will add a Narita-Dusseldorf service independent of the Haneda slot allocation. This will further grow ANA and Lufthansa's share of the Germany-Japan market to 89%, with the balance held by Japan Airlines.

Of the 11 Haneda slots awarded to ANA, only five will be used for new services while five replace Narita services and one slot (to China) remains unallocated. This is a better result than European carriers, which received six slots but will use only one for new growth.

Overall the Japan-Europe market will grow 4% in northern summer 2014. ANA is driving growth, but this is hard to pin on its success in receiving Haneda slots; theoretically the growth could have occurred without the slots. Whether or not limited Haneda slots offer a serious constraint, the next two fastest growing carriers in the Japan-Europe market are Turkish Airlines and KLM, which received no Haneda slots and are not part of a joint venture.