Seasoned travelers know that getting to Japan’s main international gateway, Narita Airport outside Tokyo, is a journey in itself.
Trains to Narita take at least one hour from central Tokyo and car journeys sometimes stretch out for more than two in heavy traffic.
One-way taxi fares cost hundreds of US dollars.
Hopes are therefore high that the opening of rival airport Haneda to a full menu of international flights will boost Tokyo’s travel hub credentials, being located a mere 20 minutes by monorail from the heart of the city.
Long limited to domestic and a few foreign flights, Haneda will on Thursday inaugurate a new runway and terminal that is set to eventually handle 60,000 flights and more than 7 million passengers a year, according to its operator.
While convenience is king, airlines will also be eyeing an opportunity to navigate out of the doldrums of the demand-sapping financial crisis and tap into a booming regional aviation -market, analysts say.
“Flights from Haneda to North Asian destinations have great potential for travelers and airlines,” said Geoffrey Tudor, a Tokyo-based analyst at Japan Aviation Management Research.
“Given the large populations in North Asia [China and South Korea], potential air traffic demand is enormous,” he said.
In particular, the Japan Tourism Agency aims to almost quadruple the number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan to 3.9 million in 2013 from 1.01 million last year, and in July eased visa requirements to encourage this.
However, while Japan’s two main carriers — All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines — and others such as Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific look to use Haneda to their advantage, not everyone is happy about the new arrangement.
Airlines from Europe and the US have been handed unwieldy daily slots between 10pm and 7am, putting them at a disadvantage among travelers reluctant to take flights that leave in the early morning hours.
“Some of the long-distance foreign carriers are not happy at all with the late night and early morning scheduling,” Tudor said. “US carriers are reluctantly going along with the scheduling to compete with Japanese carriers, but the European carriers are not happy.”
The current arrangement “does not satisfy customer expectations and operational requirements of flights to and from Europe,” Lufthansa Japan director Otto Benz said. “Further development is necessary in order to make Haneda a real hub for all carriers intending to utilize this airport.”
ANA won anti-trust immunity to cooperate with US carriers United and Continental, which merged this month.
The ruling applied also to Japan Airlines and American Airlines.
With an imminent “Open Skies” agreement liberalizing travel between Japan and the US, the Japanese carriers hope to be given another boost. JAL is -undergoing a state-led restructuring after declaring bankruptcy earlier this year.
However, industry players argue that while Haneda’s new international services point to an improving picture, Japan is still one of the most regulated and expensive places in the world to land.
Japanese low-cost carriers such as Skymark and Air Do have been unable to offer the kind of heavily discounted fares -associated with budget airlines in the US and Europe due to high operating costs.
The ubiquitous Shinkansen or “bullet-train” network also often provides a fast and cheaper alternative for domestic travel in Japan.
While ANA plans to launch a low-cost carrier operating both international and domestic short-haul routes, its success will partly depend on whether Japan follows through on proposals to slash heavy fuel taxes and other costs.
Surcharges are currently around ¥26,000 (US$320) per kiloliter of fuel, far higher than London’s Heathrow or New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.
“Japanese airports are still far too expensive compared with rivals,” said Takahiko Kishi, aviation analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities. “Despite the expansion of international operations, Haneda will still be behind its rivals as a regional hub. To compete with the likes of Seoul’s Incheon, Haneda should further expand runways as well as cut landing costs.”
Analysts say that Japan’s subsidies for under-used domestic airports, the result of optimistic demand scenarios and pork-barrel politics, is a problem that keeps costs high.
The newest of Japan’s 98 airports, Ibaraki, opened outside Tokyo in March aiming to lure budget airlines, but it has just one daily flight, by Asiana Airlines to Seoul, and already expects an annual operating loss of ¥20 million.
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