United Airlines and Hawaiian object to Delta plans to switch Tokyo Haneda service

United Continental Holdings and Hawaiian Airlines objected (03/06-Aug-2012) to efforts by Delta Air Lines to transfer daily service to Tokyo Haneda from Detroit to Seattle (Dow Jones, 07-Aug-2012). As previously reported, Delta last week requested permission to move the service, being awarded two of the four daily services to Tokyo Haneda in 2010. United, which failed to gained slots in the process, said Delta's request should be refused. It said it would operate San Francisco-Tokyo Haneda service if Delta is unable to operate from Detroit. Hawaiian Airlines, which was awarded one Haneda service, also called for Delta's request to be turned down, adding that it was ready to add a second daily service. American Airlines, which operates New York JFK-Haneda service, said Delta should be allowed to move the service to Seattle as long as it can move its own services to another city if it wishes. [more - Hawaiian Airlines response courtesy of AirlineInfo] [more - United response courtesy of AirlineInfo]

Hawaiian Airlines: "Hawaiian finds Delta's request to move its Detroit service to Seattle without merit and completely counter to the carefully crafted distribution of frequencies established by DOT in the Order. The granting of Delta's present request to move from its Detroit hub, that it represented to DOT would provide well established and dependable benefits, would undo the carefully crafted distribution of frequencies set forth in the Order. Hawaiian remains committed to increasing its frequencies to Haneda. Should a new selection proceeding be initiated, Hawaiian will actively participate to win that second frequency." Source: Company statement, 06-Aug-2012.

United Air Lines: "Despite the Department's selection of Delta1 to operate daily nonstop Detroit-Haneda and Los Angeles-Haneda B-747 service by Order 2010-7-2, Delta has failed to deliver on the commitments in its Haneda service proposal over the last two years, and granting its request to now move one of its US gateways from Detroit to Seattle (see Motion of Delta filed July 30, 2012 in this docket) would further perpetuate the inefficient use of these scarce, highly valuable Haneda slots. United therefore urges the Department to deny Delta's request and instead allocate one daily pair of US-Tokyo Haneda combination slots for United to provide scheduled foreign air transportation of persons, property and mail with its own aircraft between San Francisco and Tokyo Haneda. Moreover, United is ready, willing and able to commence daily nonstop San Francisco-Haneda service within 90 days of the Department's allocation." Source: Company statement, 03-Aug-2012.