Tourism Japanese airlines shift from Narita to Haneda

Despite the gradual recovery of international air travel after the pandemic, Japan's two largest airlines, ANA and JAL, are still operating fewer flights out of Narita International Airport than before COVID-19. Interestingly, they are now shifting their focus away from Narita, which was once the primary international gateway to Tokyo. Instead, both airlines redistribute overseas flights to Haneda Airport, conveniently near Tokyo's urban centre. Simultaneously, they are devising fresh medium-term strategies for their Narita operations, which include introducing new international airline brands and expanding cargo services.

For the summer schedule beginning on 31 March, ANA is set to run 116 weekly international flights on 18 routes out of Narita, compared to 294 weekly flights on 34 routes in the pre-pandemic summer of 2019. Meanwhile, the carrier's Haneda summer schedule has expanded from 247 weekly flights on 24 routes in 2019 to 285 flights on 30 routes. It's much the same story with JAL, which has a summer schedule of 131 weekly international flights on 20 routes out of Narita this year, compared to 280 flights on 31 routes in 2019. At the same time, the airline has boosted international flights operated out of Haneda from 154 on 15 routes in summer 2019 to 236 on 24 routes this year.

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Meanwhile, many routes operated to and from Narita before the pandemic remain suspended, including some ANA services in Southeast Asia, China, Taiwan, Russia, India and Germany and JAL routes to cities in Russia, China, Taiwan and South Korea.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Delta is all Haneda now. It makes travel for me a lot more convenient.