Hold That Flight

Delays happen. Everyone who travels frequently knows that. Flights arrive and depart late. Your room isn't ready but you can have breakfast in the hotel cafe if you'd care to wait. Your table at the hot new restaurant - the one featured on TripAdvisor - isn't ready either, but you can have a cocktail at the bar while you wait for the crush to abate.

As it goes with small matters, so it goes with large ones.

That's why it's not a terribly big surprise that Boeing Co. (www.boeing.com) has delayed the delivery of its eco-friendly, composite-materials 787 Dreamliner yet again - this time till the third quarter of the New Year. Originally, the gorgeous new plane - I've seen test models at Boeing plants near Seattle - was supposed to arrive at launch airline All Nippon Airways (www.ana.co.jp) in 2008. Didn't happen, thanks to overextended global supply chains and technical challenges. The latest setback came about when a fire broke out on a test flight in November and engineers had to scrutinize the plane again. When it does finally fly commercially, this will be a better-than-good plane; it will be a breakthrough aircraft. (You can read about the 787 in more detail in a feature story I did last year for Global Traveler magazine, www.globaltravelerusa.com).

Another delay, less sweeping, to be sure, also involving Japan, has come from American Airlines www.aa.com), which will delay nonstop service between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Tokyo's lustrous, refurbished and expanded Haneda International Airport (www.tokyo-airport.bldg.jp). The new service is now expected to begin on or about March 1, pushed back from previously announced Jan. 20 - Thursday. American says it needs more time to plan and wants to wait until the traditionally weak travel month of February gives way to stronger traffic. AA had already sold some tickets for early flights. Bloomberg Business Week reports that AA "will offer passengers rebookings on its existing route from JFK to Tokyo's Narita airport instead, or a refund ...''

Delta Air Lines, too, has pushed back to Feb. 19 its own Los Angeles International Airport service to Haneda, from the original January time-slot.

Sometimes the marketing runs ahead of operations and engineering. These instances are the latest examples, by no means rare.

Having recently toured Haneda airport and flown into and out of the new international terminal, I can say it's one of the best airports in East Asia. That's saying a lot, as most of the world's high-quality airports are in East Asia. Haneda is gleaming, modern, efficiently run, much closer to downtown Tokyo than Narita -which snared Tokyo's international flights when it opened in 1978 but must now share them - and blessed with good food and shops and lounges. You almost wouldn't mind getting delayed there, though I wasn't when I flew to Tokyo Haneda recently on Japan Airlines. When service to this strikingly upgraded airport gets going in earnest, the travel experience for trans-Pacific fliers will get markedly better.

And when Dreamliners are, at last, put on some of those routes, it will be better still.

Back to the Future with JAL

The best recent news for Japanophiles may be the recent makeover at Tokyo's Haneda International Airport, which now sports a fourth runway and new international terminal. Both of Japan's major airlines, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, are switching some of their long-haul international flights from far-off Narita International to Haneda, which was Tokyo's premier airport before Narita opened in the late 1970s.

In line with this, Japan Airlines yesterday launched a daily nonstop flight between San Francisco International Airport and Haneda. This was a case of back to the future for JAL, which flew its first trans-Pacific flight ever, JAL 001, from Haneda to SFO back in 1954. The plane, a Douglas DC 6 propeller-driven aircraft, made stops in the Fiji Islands and Honolulu and carried just 18 passengers.

Today's JAL - reorganizing in bankruptcy protection but continuing to innovate and launch new initiatives - still calls its Haneda-SFO flight JAL 001. It's non-stop and jet-propelled now, of course, and the journey is made on a Boeing 777-200 ER, according to JAL's Michiko Kumataka. I didn't count the number of passengers at the launch ceremony at SFO yesterday - though nearly all the men there lined up to have photos and videos of themselves with comely female flight attendants wearing uniforms from JAL's past - but I wager it was a few more than 18.

Probably the best thing about flying into Haneda - in addition to its recently acquired modernity - is its location. In contrast with Narita, where highway traffic can slow the otherwise estimable Airport Limousine bus to a 2-hour crawl, and even rail service takes a while - travelers are much closer to the city center. Reconfigured route networks will also put people flying to and from China, Korea, Singapore and other parts of Japan in Haneda airport.

At SFO's Gate A7 last night, Japan's new consul general in San Francisco cut a red ribbon with oversized scissors to officially launch the flight. At about the same time - over by a temporary table adorned with soft drinks, juice and white frosted cupcakes with "JAL New Haneda'' written on the top - JAL's Douglas Shelton told me travelers will be able to access the nearest JR station for transit to the city center in about 13 minutes.

All this gives the old airport a new lease on life.

Welcome back, Haneda.

oneworld, Ready or Not

MARINA DEL RAY, Calif. - The high-end airline alliance oneworld celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. This year, it's accelerating efforts to further integrate its 11 members on the operational side. Those changes are coming both alliance-wide and in bilateral deals between member airlines hoping to get through tough economic times by joining forces.

Indeed, deals - pending and fondly hoped-for - dominated talk by airline CEOS at yesterday's conference here on the breezy, sunny seaward edge of Los Angeles.

One item that got everyone's attention was the ever-closer cooperation between American Airlines and Japan Airlines. JAL is restructuring in bankruptcy, and is expected to emerge as a much smaller, leaner operation. That has focused the minds of executives at American, who helped convince JAL to stay with oneworld after rival alliance SkyTeam wooed the Japanese carrier in hopes that it would peel away from oneworld and join SkyTeam. Didn't happen.

JAL's president, Masaru Onishi, attended the conference. He didn't confirm reports in Japan's Nikkei business daily that JAL will cut up to 16,500 jobs. Nor did he comment on a report in U.S.-based Business Week that JAL has proposed paring pension payments to retirees by as much as 50 percent.

Onishi did join American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey - who chairs oneworld's directors - in touting plans for joint trans-Pacific cooperation.

Japanese media have reported that JAL's major creditors are demanding huge international cutbacks. If a big route reduction actually happens, JAL will become more of a short-haul, Japan-focused airline. That would open up international opprtunities for its Japanese rival, All Nippon Airways, a member of Star Alliance. It could also mean American greatly ramps up its own trans-Pacific service.

JAL spokeswoman Yap Sze Hunn told me at the conference that the big decisions on JAL's restructuring are expected to be made this June or July.

I asked Arpey if American, in essence, wants to take over any abandoned JAL international routes. Referring to applications to the U.S. and Japanese governments for antitrust immunity, Arpey replied that "Until we get immunity, we are not allowed to talk to JAL about routes.''

But, Arpey added, should antitrust protection be granted, the two carriers will launch a number of joint ventures that could reshape trans-Pacific air travel, especially on well-traveled routes between Asia and North America. He didn't spell out what those ventures would be.

Already, Arpey said, AA and JAL have 11 employee teams working on matters of mutual interest. He said AA is, for example, sharing information from its FuelSmart program - i.e., how to cut back on use of costly and polluting jet fuel - with JAL.

For now, JAL and AA are funneling passengers onto each other's flights, relocating operations in major airports so that transfers between airlines become faster and easier for travelers, and expanding access to AA airport lounges for JAL's passengers.

Arpey said that AA has applied to launch service between Chicago O'Hare International Airport and Haneda International Airport, the convenient in-city airport in Tokyo. That possibility was opened up by an Open Skies pact signed early this year by the U.S. and Japan. "If we are awarded those routes, we'll start them right away,'' Arpey told me.

British Airways and Spain's Iberia, both members of oneworld - the style-minded alliance likes to lower-case its name - announced Thursday that they plan to conclude an outright merger late this year, subject to regulatory approval. Each airline will keep its name, livery and identity, acccording to BA's CEO, Willie Walsh, who attended the meeting here.

While talk was dominated by the courtship dance between JAL and American - a matter of intense preoccupation to the big contingent of Japanese reporters who winged across the Pacific to cover this meeting - other matters of interest to travel-biz types came up, too.

I chatted on the sidelines with Cathay Pacific Airways CEO Tony Tyler. He told me that the Hong Kong carrier's lucrative premium business-class traffic is finally beginning to recover after a frightening freefall brought on by the Great Recession.

"It started to rise late last year, and it has continued into this year,'' Tyler said. "It seems the bankers have started to travel to China again.''

When inquisitive journos asked American's Arpey about what AA will do if rivals United Airlines and US Airways merge - as many media reports say they want to do - he declined "to speculate about something that may or may not happen.''

Arpey did allow that "There will inevitably be consolidation around the world in the airline industry.'' But he downplayed the signifcance of mergers, as opposed to airline alliances and the kind of joint venture deals that oneworld partners are crafting.

"I don't necessarily think that consolidation is the answer to all of the economic challenges that the industry faces,'' Arpey attested. "I don't think that is the silver bullet for solving some of the industry's financial challenges.''

JAL, R.I.P.?

The airline world is abuzz with rumors about the possible bankruptcy or outright failure of Japan Airlines - JAL. Will the Japanese government rescue JAL for the fourth time in the past decade, to offset its massive losses? Will Delta Air Lines and the SkyTeam alliance lure JAL from the oneworld alliance to SkyTeam for a cool $1 billion? Will JAL opt for a $1.4 billion investment and code-share offer from oneworld's American Airlines and British Airways?

No one knows for sure what shape a reconfigured JAL could take in the weeks and months ahead. The only certainty is that it will be a very different airline, probably a smaller one. If U.S. or other foreign carriers buy into JAL, the airline will be useful to them mainly as a conduit to the rest of Asia, where civil aviation is still growing, despite the global economic downturn.

JAL, industry observers say, expanded too fast, ran with too much overhead and carries huge debt from borrowing and substantial pension obligations. Tackling all these issues will be paramount, no matter what future form this very good airline takes, or who is at the controls.

Make no mistake, JAL is a very good airline, indeed.

It recently came first in a flightstats.com survey of global airline on-time performance, just ahead of its Japanese rival, Al Nippon Airways, and Scandinavian Airlines, which came third.

Statistics aside, flying with JAL is just a very pleasant experience. I flew with JAL in April 2009, on a trip my wife and I took mainly to see Japan's justly famous cherry blossoms (the sakura). We loved seeing Tokyo's Imperial Palace, its moat lined with pink and white sakura, some branches bowing low over the water before the palace's massive stone walls. In Kyoto, the cherry blossoms softened city parks and lined the Philosophers' Walk, a narrow macadam path in central Kyoto that runs alongside a limpid stream.

Back in Tokyo, I whisked through security at Narita airport for my return flight in less than 10 minutes - a big improvement from the glacial lines I have at times endured at Narita. The JAL Sakura Lounge is one of the best I have seen anyhwere in the world, graced with lovely food, a full-bar, smoking and non-smoking sections, even a cell phone-free zone. Want to sip a beer? An automatic dispenser tilts the glass, to minimize the suds. The lounge is expansive and washed with natural light and spreads out over two levels.

Returning home in JAL business class, Japanese polish and refinement were everywhere evident. The cabin crew were gracious, the food was good, accompanied by pleasantly flowery, chilled sake. Flat-bed seats inside hard plastic shells assured privacy even as they provided much-needed rest. Lunch came in a lacquer bento box accompanied by steaming green tea. The in-flight entertainment system was on the blink for part of my flight, but that was the only glitch on a 8 hour 45 minute flight to San Francisco International Airport.

Most passengers don't know it, but JAL is an industry leader in environmental measures. The carrier has reduced its carbon emissions by 20 percent since 1990, according to Yasuroi Abe, JAL's vice president for environmental affairs. This has been done, Abe told me in an interview at JAL's central-Tokyo headquarters, by flying smaller, lighter planes, flying newer planes, even reducing weight by using lighter dishware in first- and business-class, and less paint on the outside of its 270 aircraft. In January 2009, JAL ran one engine on experimental bio-fuel during a successful test flight. Like many airlines, it hopes to come up with an environmentally friendly, affordable alternative to petroleum.

Will this accomplished airline - Japan's erstwhile national flag carrier, privatized in 1987 - survive in recognizable form? I hope so. Now, we wait.

Competition

So, Japan and the United States have finally agreed to agree on an open-skies pact after a decade of on-again, off-again negotiations. If antitrust regulators are satisfied with the deal, it will go into effect next year, opening up landing slots at major airports on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, and offer more choices for consumers.

The often-delayed agreement came about in spite of the strenuous objections of, most notably, Delta Air Lines, which inherited a number of lucrative landing slots at Tokyo's Narita International Airport when it swallowed Northwest Airlines. With United Airlines as the only other major U.S. carrier bidding for trans-Pacific trade with Delta and the big Japanese carriers Air Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, Delta wanted to keep American Airlines and other potential U.S. rivals out of the market. The open-skies pact will let them in.

As is so often the case in the corporate world, executives in the airline industry sing paeans to the joys of competition and the glory of the free market. Then, they get some actual competition, and when that happens, they change their tune. In this case, what is bad for airlines that fear open competition is good for travelers. More flights, more carriers and hopefully lower fares should come about thanks to the coming open-skies deal, with its liberalized rules

Why Open-Skies Should be Good for Travelers

Japanese and U.S. negotiators are beavering-away this week in Washington, D.C., trying to nail down the final details of an open-skies agreement between the United States and Japan. Travelers should hope they succeed. An open-skies agreement would liberalize the rules governing aviation between Japan and the U.S., potentially benefiting passengers.

New rules would allow greater access to trans-Pacific routes and give U.S. and Japanese airlines access to more airports, offering travelers more choices of airlines, flights, destinations - and, in theory, lower fares.

Under rules written shortly after World War II, Japan's erstwhile national flag carrier, Japan Airlines, and its major rival, All Nippon Airways, have been granted access to selected U.S. airports. Delta Air Lines (by buying Northwest) and United Airlines (by buying old Pan American Airways routes) control lucrative landing slots at Tokyo's Narita International Airport. They are the only two U.S.-based passenger airlines legally permitted to operate there in a big way. Open-skies would allow more airlines to become major players and increase competition.

A far-reaching pact could also clear the way for antitrust immunity for global airlines that want to hook-up and forge code-share arrangements, fly customers on each other's planes, use each other's airport lounges and send people onward on each other's routes. This would, for example, permit an American business traveler to fly to Tokyo Narita airport on-board American Airlines, then onward into the hinterlands of China on AA partner airline JAL.

This can all get a little technical and wonky, to be sure. But if an open-skies pact is signed - media reports predict a deal as early as this week - a more-seamless travel experience on both long-haul routes over the Pacific and short-haul flights within Asia and the U.S. could result. Any open-skies deal will have to be struck by government officials, as governments - not airlines or airports - write the laws governing international aviation.

While the deal-makers haggle in Washington, the airlines, too, are busy trying to tweak the system. With most nation-states casting a cold eye on trans-border airline mergers, for reasons of national prestige and national security, bilateral competition between airlines is evolving to become a competition between the world's three major airline alliances.

JAL, for example, is a member of the oneworld alliance, which also includes American Airlines and British Airways. Oneworld greatly values JAL, as the Japanese carrier has superb connections in fast-growing Asian markets. Rival airline alliance SkyTeam has offered a billion-dollar (U.S.) aid package to JAL to lure the airline to SkyTeam, led by Delta and Air France/KLM. Star Alliance, the largest of the three global airline alliances, counts Japan's ANA as a member. Fellow Star member United is seeking anti-trust immunity from U.S. and Japanese authorities so it can work more closely with ANA.

So, the wheeling and dealing is intensifing in both the private and the public sectors, all at once.

JAL is key to how all this plays out. Once government-owned, JAL is now a private company. It is struggling due to the downturn in the global economy and staggering under enormous debt and pension obligations. Media reports in Japan say the Japanese government is considering giving a financial aid package to JAL, to keep the carrier flying, and that the package approaches $8 billion (U.S.). Like open-skies, this deal isn't done yet. Should Tokyo come up with an aid package, it will be the fourth time since 2001 that the Japanese government has funneled public funds to JAL.