American Airlines has received tentative approval from the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) to launch nonstop service between New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND), securing slots relinquished by Delta Air Lines.

The Oneworld alliance member has seen off competition from United Airlines for the daytime slot pair after the two went head-to-head to increase their Haneda networks. United had hoped to commence a route from Houston, switching its existing service from Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT).

American says it will begin the new JFK-HND route in the “coming months” but is yet to reveal a start date. However, the airline’s original application to the DOT outlined tentative plans to open flights on March 31 using Boeing 777-200 aircraft.

“We are grateful to the DOT and thankful to our partner Japan Airlines (JAL) for supporting our application,” American CEO Robert Isom says. “Together, we are well-positioned to offer customers a comprehensive network between two of the most robust economies in the world.”

American says the daily flights from JFK will enhance inter-carrier and inter-alliance competition while adding almost 200,000 two-way seats per year between the U.S. and Tokyo.

In the New York-Tokyo market, fellow Oneworld member JAL already serves JFK-HND twice a day, while All Nippon Airways (ANA) provides the same level of frequencies on the route. ANA’s Star Alliance partner United also flies daily between Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and HND, as well as daily between EWR and NRT.

United had contended that American’s proposed flights between JFK and Haneda reflected an “apparent strategy to cherry-pick a seemingly ‘easy’ Haneda gateway” without demonstrating how a sixth Haneda flight from the New York metropolitan area would be beneficial to the travelling public.

However, the DOT found that while both American and United presented “attractive proposals” for using the Haneda slots, American’s route from JFK would better achieve the “principal objective of maximizing public benefits.”

“The record shows that New York City is the second largest mainland U.S.-Tokyo O&D market, second only to Los Angeles, and the largest such market proposed in this proceeding,” the DOT’s tentative decision says. “Selection of American would add the only U.S. carrier-operated Haneda service from JFK, and offer an additional competitive option for travelers between the largest cities and commercial/financial hubs of the United States and Japan, respectively”

It adds that traffic demand in the New York-Tokyo market justifies additional Haneda service, and that New York would still be underserved relative to Houston if the Department awards the slot pair to JFK. The move means that American will now hold four daytime U.S.-Haneda slot pairs, compared to five daytime slot pairs for United, six daytime slot pairs for Delta, and two daytime slot pairs for Hawaiian.

American already serves Haneda twice a day from Los Angeles International Airport and daily from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), as well as flying daily to Narita from DWF.

The slot pair at Haneda became available after Delta told the DOT in September that it did not intend to utilize them for flights from Portland. The carrier had previously asked the department to grant airlines flexibility to use the slot pairs to operate to Haneda from any U.S. market, rather than the cities assigned to each airline in the 2019 slot allocation for the service to Haneda. However, the agency rejected the request.

Hawaiian Gives Up Haneda Night Flights 

Separately, Hawaiian Airlines on Jan. 26 informed the DOT that it will return the nighttime authority to serve Haneda from Honolulu (four times per week) and Kona (three times per week) effective April 2, adding it “did not take this decision lightly.”

The carrier resumed the nighttime service in October 2023 and has incrementally increased service throughout the current winter scheduling season. However, it says that “current market conditions make continued operation of the flight economically unviable.”

“The Japan-Hawaii market is still encountering headwinds,” a notice filed with the DOT by Hawaiian says. “First, the Japanese yen is weak relative to the U.S. dollar. Second, the costs of Hawaii lodging have increased significantly.

“Both factors increase the affordability of a trip to Hawaii for Hawaiian’s Japanese guests. With these factors persisting, Hawaiian does not forecast a turnaround in the performance of the nighttime flight, which historically has been the weakest flight in Hawaiian’s Haneda operations, in the reasonably foreseeable future.”

United has previously urged the DOT to award it the nighttime slots held by Hawaiian so it could launch flights to Haneda from Guam. However, this request was denied late last year.