Am not surprised by this news. HND has become the favoured Tokyo airport for business people and that is why airlines are downgrading their NRT flights.
Hence LH now uses its B747-8 on the FRA-HND route whereas NRT downgraded to a less frequent service by A34-300s.
Out of interest, is it a requirement that airlines must operate out of NRT to have rights at HND? If not, surely BA and others would be looking to move all flights to HND. With only 1 flight a day, it’s a big cost to have another set of staff at NRT when obviously the demand is at HND.
This has been building for years and the Japanese authorities have been placing numerous restrictions to prevent a wholesale move from European carriers out of NRT.
With NRT’s poor location compared with HND, where does this leave it in the future?
Hi thecartoonman – The situation at Tokyo reminds me of Montreal where the Canadians built a brand new airport at Mirabel (as remote as Narita) to handle international flights. Dorval (almost as convenient as Haneda) would handle domestic flights.
But Mirabel was unpopular with passengers as it was too far out of town and it eventually closed. Dorval won the day.
