American Airlines' new Tokyo schedule includes more premium seats
American Airlines will add more premium seats to Japan next spring with its new flights to Tokyo's close-in Haneda Airport.
The Oneworld Alliance carrier will debut a daily flight between Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Haneda (HND) and a second daily flight between Los Angeles (LAX) and Haneda on March 29, American announced Thursday. Both the DFW and LAX flights will replace existing frequencies to Tokyo Narita (NRT), which is significantly further from downtown Tokyo than Haneda.
American will fly its flagship Boeing 777-300ER on the new DFW-Haneda flight. The aircraft has eight first-class, 52 business, 28 premium economy and 216 economy seats. The airline will be the only U.S. carrier operating a first-class cabin between the U.S. and Japan.
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On the second LAX-Haneda flight, the carrier will operate a Boeing 787-9 with 30 business-class, 19 premium economy and 234 economy seats.
American's decision to operate a 777-300ER on the new DFW-Haneda flight represents a nearly two-thirds increase in the number of first-and business-class seats as compared to its existing DFW-Narita flight that it flies with a 777-200. The smaller 777-200 only has 37 business-class seats.
Tickets for the new flights to Haneda go on sale on Monday (Sept. 30).
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded American the two Haneda flights as part of 12 new flights made available to U.S. carriers from 2020. Delta Air Lines received five, Hawaiian Airlines one and United Airlines four of those flights.
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The new frequencies to Haneda are part of an effort by the Japanese government to increase capacity to Tokyo ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that begin in July.
From March, American and its partner Japan Airlines (JAL) will offer nonstop service between Tokyo Haneda and Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York John F. Kennedy (JFK) and San Francisco (SFO), according to current Diio by Cirium schedules.
The Japanese government is expected to award JAL some of the 12 new U.S.-Haneda flights that are also being made available to Japanese carriers.
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