Haneda gets ready

Tokyo Haneda Airport will officially return to the world of international aviation next Sunday (31 October), a number of carriers re-introducing long haul flights for the first time in over 30 years.  With a 62m throughput last year, and a new runway, it could within a short space of time overtake Atlanta as the world’s busiest airport.

In 1978, with the opening of Narita, airlines were forced to move to the new Tokyo International Airport, always unpopular and 40 miles from the city centre.

Leading the rush back to the Tokyo Bay waterside operation is oneworld, headed by Japanese carrier JAL.  The airline, Haneda’s biggest operator, currently has 184 daily departures serving 34 points across Japan.   New flights will include Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Paris, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Taiwan.  Over the course of the next few months JAL will be joined by American Airlines (JFK) British Airways (Heathrow), Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong) and Qantas (Sydney).

oneworld will reduce its minimum connecting times for passengers arriving internationally to transfer to onwards domestic flights by 10 minutes to just 70 minutes.  Domestic-to-international and from international-to-international will also be cut by ten minutes, to 70 and 50 minutes respectively. www.oneworldalliance.com

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