American, Delta & Hawaiian Airlines fight for a Haneda night slot – and battle looms for a day slot

US airlines are putting up a tough and dramatic - with elements of farce - fight for a nighttime slot at Tokyo Haneda Airport. American and Hawaiian Airlines successfully convinced the US Department of Transportation (DoT) to review whether Delta's use of the Seattle-Haneda route is in the public interest after Delta significantly decreased capacity over northern winter 2014/2015. American and Hawaiian have applied for the slot to serve Haneda from Los Angeles and Kona, respectively.

The posturing reflects the limited access US carriers gained to Haneda following the "Big Bang" in 2010. Overall the slot would be nice for the airline but is a small part of its network. Yet the intense fight comes as Delta battles weakness in Japan and plans an overall capacity pull-down in the market during 2015. Nonetheless, this spat over a single nighttime slot shows how intense the competition is likely to be when two Haneda slots at far more valuable daytime hours are made available to US carriers, subject to final negotiations.