CAPA > Aviation News > Japan and UK expand air services agreement to include Tokyo Narita

Japan MLIT announced (24-Jan-2012) it has concluded talks with its UK counterparts and have agreed to expand their bilateral air services agreement, removing flight restrictions at Tokyo Narita Airport, effective from summer 2013 when the annual slots at Tokyo Narita increase to 270,000. The agreement will also allow carriers from Japan and the UK to operate two daily, respectively, between Tokyo Haneda and UK, when daytime slots at the airport double from 30,000 to 60,000. The UK is the 13th nation to have an open skies agreement with Japan and the first European country to do so. Japan has similar agreements with the US and South Korea.

Airlines operating between Japan and UK during the 2011 winter schedules are as follows:

• Japanese carriers:
  • Japan Airlines: Daily Tokyo Narita-London service;
  • All Nippon Airways (ANA): Daily Tokyo Narita-London service codesharing with Virgin Atlantic;
• UK carriers:
  • British Airways:
    • Daily London-Tokyo Narita service;
    • Five times weekly London-Tokyo Haneda (three times weekly between 26-Dec-2011 and 27-Jan-2012);
  • Virgin Atlantic: Daily London-Tokyo Narita service codesharing with ANA.

---

You may also be interested in the following articles...

• Japan Airlines' 17% margin may be envy of the industry, but JAL's outlook is less upbeat
  18-May-2012

  Japan Airlines, with its recently achieved 17% operating margin, may be the antipode to Warren Buffet’s advice about investing in airlines, but JAL is not in an entirely enviable position. The forthcoming entry of low-cost carriers, if initially small in number, will soon have a seismic affect.

  While JAL is so far more assiduously managing this new prospect than is competitor All Nippon Airways, it is showing signs of buckling.

  Despite FY2012 offering growth and recovery from the tsunami and earthquake-affected FY2011, JAL projects profit to decrease. Recent months show JAL is growing capacity ahead of demand, which when combined with LCC proliferation will suppress profits in a doubtful market. JAL’s euphoria of a stellar year after its remarkable emergence from bankruptcy may be shortlived, for reasons beyond its control.

• All Nippon Airways confident due to 2011 financial success but there are changes ahead
  14-May-2012

  Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) has achieved the impressive accomplishment of posting a record profit not only in the current economic environment but in the year immediately after Japan’s Mar-2011 devastating earthquake and tsunami. ANA's JPY97 billion (USD1.2 billion) operating profit came on the back of international growth and early introduction of cost-cutting measures. While ANA may enjoy this momentum for another year or two, its medium- and long-term strategy is far from certain and could challenge the ability to repeat ANA's recent gains.

  The Japanese market is about to undergo a significant structural shift with the introduction of LCCs that will reshape domestic and short-haul regional flights. ANA is fully aware of new LCCs – its subsidiary Peach was the first to market and ANA will shortly co-launch AirAsia Japan – its management plan has seemingly not taken the carriers into full consideration. Rival Japan Airlines is planning to decrease its exposure to the domestic market, already lower than at ANA, while ANA is planning to grow its LCC-exposed domestic network.

  History suggests ANA's domestic strategy is in substantial need of revision.