When slots to fly from the United States to Tokyo’s Haneda airport, there was a mad rush to be awarded one or more by almost all the major airlines.  Access to Haneda airport is seen as very valuable to an airline since it is much closer to central Tokyo.

American Airlines won one of those slots to fly from New York City to Tokyo and had originally scheduled their flights to start in late January.  Now, American Airlines is asking for a “modest” extension to March.  Why?  Because business is slow for January.

I’ve always had a problem with airlines winning these opportunities and then later deciding to defer service to a more convenient time.  When these proposals are made, a great deal of justification for the award takes place in the form of arguing that traffic exists to sustain that service.  The demand is there and the airline promises essentially that it will offer the best service possible.

If that was true enough to win the award, then it’s true enough to fly the route when you originally schedule it.  If an airline cannot deliver on its promises in its proposal, that slot should be given to someone who will execute on that route.  While I agree that this really is a very modest delay being requested, it is contingent on the idea that business will pick up and nothing guarantees that it will.  It is all predicated on assuptions that may or may not be true.

An award for a route should require that an airline deliver on its promises or suffer the penalty of winning the award.

Filed under: Airline News, Airline Service by ajax