All Nippon Airways is set to begin shifting some of its passenger charters from Tokyo’s Narita airport to Haneda Airport from 1 April, beginning with flights to Hong Kong.
The Japanese carrier is taking advantage of a further loosening of restrictions on using Haneda for international flights, which have traditionally been concentrated at the city’s Narita airportwhich is located much further from thecity-centre compared with Haneda.
Haneda will be opened up for substantially more international flights in October 2010 following the completion of a major expansion project currently underway.
ANA has long indicated that it wants to turn Tokyo’s domestic airport into a major hub for international flights as well and similarly Japan Airlines is also looking to boost its international flights out of the airport.
In addition to its routes to Seoul and Shanghai, JAL intends to off er services out of Haneda to Beijing during the Olympics. The carrier operated 280 charters out of Haneda in fiscal 2007 and intends to raise that number in fiscal 2008.
It’s unclear how the two carriers might utilise Haneda for cargo flights, but runway length limitations may mean fully loaded 747-200 and 747- 400 cargo aircraft may not be able to take off .