2nd Narita runway opens; U.S. airlines' slots decrease

By Desmond Hutton
Bloomberg News Service

TOKYO — Japan's Narita Airport opens a second runway today, easing one of Asia's worst air traffic bottlenecks and leaving U.S. airlines with fewer landing slots at the world's eighth-largest airport.

The airport opened a quarter-century ago with only a single runway because of disputes with local farmers. The new landing strip also will be too short for bigger, long-range planes because of the spat.

Narita is Japan's main international gateway, accounting for more than half of the overseas flights serving the country. The allocation of the new landing slots favors regional carriers serving shorter routes in Asia, cutting the slot share of U.S. airlines to Narita to 29.6 percent from 33.7 percent.

"We originally requested two extra slots a day but we only got one, so you can say we aren't satisfied with the result," said Hideki Isayama, spokesman for UAL Corp.'s United Airlines Inc., last month. The airline is "working closely" with the airport authority to add slots, Isayama said.

United Airlines will emerge with a 7.4 percent share of the slots, or 224 flights per week, after the new runway opens, down from 8.5 percent now. Northwest Airlines Corp., the biggest of the U.S. carriers serving Narita airport, will see its share of slots whittled down 2 percentage points to 11 percent, or 350 flights per week.

All Nippon Airways Co., Asia's second-largest carrier, is the biggest winner from the new runway opening, raising its share of slots to 8.6 percent, or 258 per week. That's about 1.5 percentage points more than now.