JAPAN: Haneda Expands China Flights To Handle Influx

Haneda Airport has steadily expanded from mostly domestic flights into a full-fledged international airport over the past five years. With its prime downtown Tokyo location, it offers easier access to the capital for passengers on long-haul flights from a wide range of overseas destinations, including major cities in Asia, the U.S., Europe, Oceania and the Middle East.

China, in particular, is making the effects of its bulging economic muscle felt in the skies over Japan, and Haneda is now responding to the soaring number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan. On Oct. 25, the airport's daytime slots for flights to and from mainland China will increase sharply.

Chinese budget carriers, such as Spring Airlines, have also started using the airport by obtaining early-morning and late-night slots.

"This is the kind of growth in passenger traffic we have never experienced before," said a marketing executive at All Nippon Airways, a unit of ANA Holdings, marveling at the explosive increase in the number of Chinese passengers flying to Japan that began in February.

Surge in travelers

In August, some 590,000 people from the Chinese mainland traveled to Japan, a 2.3-fold jump from a year earlier, according to the Japan National Tourist Organization. The ANA's flights on routes between Japan and China are running at around 85% capacity, higher than those for its services involving destinations in the U.S. and Europe, which have been the airline's traditional cash cows.

In response to the deluge of Chinese visitors, the transport ministry decided to expand Haneda-based air routes to China, implementing a plan that had been suspended for some time due to strains in the relationship between the two countries.

Haneda's daytime slots for flights to and from China will be increased to 140 per week, with the added slots allocated to major Japanese and Chinese airlines.

From Oct. 25, both ANA and Japan Airlines will start operating two Haneda-based round-trip flights to Beijing and Shanghai. They will also launch a new daily round-trip flight between Tokyo and Guangzhou. The new services will increase transport options and boost travel convenience for tourists flying between Japan and China's coastal areas.