American takes over Delta’s SEA-HND rights, now bidding for LAX-HND rights
It looks like American Airlines is barking at Delta Airlines lately. First, American offered bonus miles for those passengers who fly on paid First and Business class, and now, American had made a bid to the Department of Transportation to take over Delta’s route to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.
American claims that Delta only operated flights between Seattle-Tacoma International and Haneda Airport 17 times this winter, which is 10 percent less and just enough flights for Delta to maintain rights to the slot. American asked the DOT to withdraw Delta’s rights due to underuse and the DOT has agreed.
Now, American is trying to convince the DOT to approve a bid to start flying from LAX, instead of SEA, to Haneda. American says they would provide customers daily, year-round nonstop service between LAX and Haneda on a Boeing 777-200 aircraft.
(Please note: American wants to fly to HND only from LAX, not SEA. They are trying to convince the DOT to let them fly out of LAX in order to maximize the new route.)
American quoted the following statistics on their website, “This compares to Delta’s 500 weekly flights to 27 North American cities for customers connecting to Haneda through Seattle. We’ll offer one-stop service from Tokyo’s downtown airport to more than double the number of destinations.”Network matters: join us in our bid to serve Tokyo Haneda from LAX. http://t.co/AtQMhkclBx #LetAAFlyHaneda pic.twitter.com/EqN11kpZr0
— American Airlines (@AmericanAir) January 5, 2015
Hawaiian also bid for that slot since it is now officially under review.
The title and the article are a bit confusing – makes it sound like AA is “taking over” the SEA route AND also bidding to add LAX. My understanding is they want to fly LAX-HND using the rights currently allotted to Delta’s SEA route, meaning AA would not be flying SEA-HND.
You are very right, my apologies. I have edited the article to distinguish between the two cities.