The Department of Transportation has allowed Delta to keep the sought after Seattle -Tokyo Haneda Airport route provided that they fly between Seattle and Haneda uninterrupted, every day of the year. It picked American to assume the route if Delta does not provide daily service. American and Hawaiian tried to gain the coveted Haneda Airport slot from Delta after Delta curbed service during winter. The US airlines are only allotted 4 slots at Haneda. Haneda is popular with business travelers because it’s much closer to central Tokyo than Narita is.
Delta has responded to the Department of Transportation in a filing describing the one flight a day standard as “Draconian”. Delta’s Associate General Counsel Alexander Van der Bellen wrote, in the April 6 filing, “At the most basic level, the proposed condition deviates from past practice because, as far as Delta is aware, the department has never previously imposed such a strict 365-day-a-year service requirement.”
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