Originally Posted by
Nantonaku
Very skeptical of this. Haneda is a royal PIA to get to for millions and millions of people in the Kanto area. Narita is cheaper and very easy to get to for millions. Basically Tokyo and north it is quicker, easier and more comfortable to go to Narita. Taken a flight to Tokyo lately? Basically all leisure now and all DH crew or PSUP in D1. If they were losing money at Narita they are losing that same money at Haneda. If the inter Asian flying was losing money that has nothing to do with Narita. For most people the airports are the same. If they worked at the north end of the city you’d want to use Narita. If you worked on the south side you’d want to use Haneda.
All right this just isn’t true. I fly to HND a fair bit and we’re nearly always full in D1. A quick look at travelnet can prove it. Sure for a lot of people and NRT is going to be closer. Remember Stewart Airport in New York, the next best thing the reliever airport to solve all the problems. Sure it would be a lot closer for a lot of people, but it never materialized. The reality is as sailing said the company was losing a lot of money hubbing out of NRT. The Japanese found a workaround by building additional runways at HND (at great expense), but they managed to make that the preferred airport. Simple as that.