True, but they are understandably reluctant on putting the Captain in the tail of an Airbus. When the tail falls off, the Captain may go with it.

Scoop

I'm for that. I don't care what it takes to move up a number.

There is a good article in this month's Air Transport World about Haneda. Bottom line is that the Japanese are only opening 4 slots a day into Haneda for US based carriers (ie we might get 1 slot). Delta (and others) have already stated this is less than what is needed to make the operation economically viable.

The Japanese mostly see Haneda as a way to bail out JAL by giving them a competitive edge and nearly a monopoly on service out of that airport. This is all about propping up JAL and not about the Japanese people wanting a more convenient airport, better service, or future growth. My take on this is the exact same that our MEC published today ... the Japanese are not going to structure this in such a way that it provides jobs to Americans.

The good news is that there is a high speed rail line now being built to Narita to make that airport more accessible. Also, the operators of other regional airports in Japan are fighting the opening of Haneda to international operations since they fear it will divert resources and traffic from their airports.

My take is that this reminds me a lot of Pan Am and the "crown jewel" Frankfurt was, only to be shut down two years later. As with most of my prognostications, I hope I'm wrong.

The US government should step in and ban international flights from Haneda all together to U.S. soil. The Japanese government is trying to screw the U.S. carriers. The U.S. government can and should stop this.

The current US government agrees with the Japanese that we are too powerful and have too many resources. Fat chance of them taking any action of the sort you suggest.

And I am sad to say that I agree with your assessment......

Just go read articles on Japan-U.S. relations and you'll understand why the MEC said this:

it is reasonable to predict a scenario where:
• The U.S. and Japan reach an air transport agreement (labeled as “open skies”) that favors Japan
• Oneworld and Star Alliance members are granted antitrust immunity
• Delta is left without a Japanese alliance partner and without meaningful access to Haneda

For the sake of the thread, I won't post a picture of someone bowing to someone else recently, but my bet, Japan wins big for all of the reasons Satchip said. Sadly, this battle is far smaller than of course the U.S. military base issues so watch us (Delta) be tossed under a bus.

Frankly, I am a little surprised DAL has not requested a letter writing campaign-like for LGA. The lack of this request makes me think they are dead serious about winning the JAL JV auction.

Glad to see you folks are educating yourselves on the difficulties and intricacies of this deal as it is today.

Scambo

There's a link on Deltanet for it. I did one...

Me too.....