A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about ANA and JAL’s potential plans with their newly awarded daytime slots at Tokyo Haneda airport.
Today, the airline has officially announced the details of its plans which – among other things – includes adding new destinations like Milan and Istanbul to its route network.
ANA’s Plan with New Tokyo Haneda Daytime Slots
Just to recap, ANA has the following new daytime slots at Tokyo Haneda to work with: 6 daily rotations to the United States, 2 to China, 1 to Russia, Australia, Italy, Turkey, and Scandinavia, and 0.5 to India.
Based on the new announcement, ANA will use the slots as follows:
- United States
- Move Houston, San Jose, Seattle, and Washington D.C. flights from Narita to Haneda
- Increase frequency to Los Angeles from daily to double daily (and reduce flights from Narita from double daily to daily)
- Launch flights to San Francisco in addition to the existing daily flights from Narita
- China
- Launch flights to Qingdao in addition to the existing daily flights from Narita
- Launch flights to Shenzhen
- Australia
- Increase frequency to Sydney from daily to double daily
- India
- Move Delhi flights from Narita to Haneda
- Europe
- Launch flights to Istanbul in Turkey
- Launch flights to Milan Malpensa in Italy
- Launch flights to Moscow Domodedovo in Russia
- Launch flights to Stockholm in Sweden
The flights from Haneda to Delhi and the United States (other than the San Francisco flights) will start operating on March 29, 2020. The other destinations are expected to be launched “as soon as preparation is completed during summer schedule for 2020.” Part of it will also likely depend on how fast ANA can hire new pilots since it is experiencing a shortage.
While flights on the routes that will launch in March 2020 will go on sale later this month, ANA expects to start selling tickets to the other destinations in mid-December.
Separately from the changes related to the new Haneda slots, ANA also plants to reshuffle its Vietnam routes starting from March 29, 2020. It will move one of the two daily Narita – Ho Chi Minh rotations to Haneda, and it will move its daily Hanoi flights from Haneda to Narita.
ANA’s Haneda – Delhi and the US Flight Schedules
While the schedules of the flights that are expected to launch later during the summer schedule are not known yet, ANA has published the schedules for the flights that will launch on March 29, 2020.
The new Tokyo Haneda (HND) – Houston (IAH) flights will be operated daily by a Boeing 777-300ER with the following schedule:
- NH114 / HND – IAH / 10:20AM – 8:40AM
- NH113 / IAH – HND / 1:10PM – 5:00PM+1
The flights to Washington D.C. (IAD) will be operated by a 777-300ER as well and will run as follows:
- NH102 / HND – IAD / 10:55AM – 10:35AM
- NH101 / IAD – HND / 1:10PM – 4:15PM+1
ANA will use a 787-8 on both the San Jose (SJC) and Seattle (SEA) flights.
The flights to San Jose will operate with the following schedule:
- NH120 / HND – SJC / 5:05PM – 10:30AM
- NH119 / SJC – HND / 12:20PM – 3:20PM+1
The flights to Seattle will operate with the following schedule:
- NH118 / HND – SEA / 9:00PM – 2:10PM
- NH117 / SEA – HND / 4:40PM – 7:00PM+1
Finally, the Delhi (DEL) flights will be operated by the larger 787-9 with the schedule below:
- NH837/ HND – DEL / 10:10AM – 4:25PM
- NH838 / DEL – HND / 6:30PM – 5:55AM+1
Summary
While the latest announcement more or less confirms the rumors that were circling previously, it’s good to see ANA officially announcing the schedule changes – and especially the new routes.
Even though it is unfortunate that ANA will not be adding any new destinations in the United States using the new slots, that might change in the future once it is able to hire enough pilots. On the other hand, it is great to see the new European routes being officially announced.
Especially so its routes to Istanbul and Stockholm from where it will also be possible to connect to their Star Alliance partners’ (Turkish Airlines and SAS) flights to other destinations in Europe and Africa.
3 thoughts on “ANA to Launch Four European Destinations, Announces Details of Haneda Slot Usage”
Thanks always for your quality writing! I’m Tokyo based, and watch with great anticipation the really big changes happening to our skies! I was particularly excited to see JAL re-start NRT-SFO. I think its a testament to the “one mega-city, two hubs” system that Tokyo will have to develop as it moves forward to the future (notwithstanding the Ibaraki and Shizuoka growth we are seeing – I’m dying to see Tsukuba Express extension to Ibaraki and Shinkansen station at Shizuoka). I hope JAL and AA will use the new available slots at NRT for newer routes to the US, like Las Vegas, Miami, Austin, Phoenix etc… and of course for NH/UA to do that too! A question, what are your thoughts on more European flights using the super-late night HND slots, like the JL to LHR? More expansion there?
Thanks for your nice comment, Eric!
The Narita – San Francisco flight is likely mainly intended for passengers connecting from Bengaluru (i.e. the “Silicon Valley” of India) with the real Silicon Valley.
It would indeed be great to see JAL and ANA open more US destinations (and for me as someone from Europe, more European destinations). For the foreseeable future, however, I am not sure how viable that would be considering both of the companies’ troubles with hiring enough pilots.
Hi there! Yes, actually I am European/Japanese mixed too, so would love to see more flights to Europe. Hence my question about the super-late night slots at HND. I took the late-night flight HND-LHR before and it was fantastic! Sleep like a baby, and arrive first thing in the morning. But yes, the issue with sourcing enough pilots has to be met first.