When it comes to Tokyo Airports, Haneda is significantly more convenient than Narita, since it’s closer to the city. Historically a majority of long haul flights have been into Narita due to Haneda being significantly slot restricted, but that has slowly been changing.
For example, recently US airlines got access to an additional dozen slots at Haneda Airport, which were distributed between American, Delta, Hawaiian, and United.
Japanese airlines have also been given additional Haneda slots for US flights, also causing them to largely shift their US operations.
I first wrote about this in mid-November, though wanted to update that post, because the schedule and launch date have now been revealed for the new Tokyo Haneda to San Francisco route, which wasn’t initially the case.
Japanese carriers are getting a total of 12 daytime Haneda slots for US flights, and those are being equally distributed between All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines.
In this post:
All Nippon Airways Adding Six US Flights From Haneda
With the recent changes to Haneda slots, we will see All Nippon Airways add six new flights to the US out of Haneda. Most of these will replace Narita flights, though that’s not the case across the board.
Let’s take a look at the details.
New ANA Haneda To Houston Flight
As of March 29, 2020, ANA will be shifting their daily Houston flight from Narita to Haneda. The new flight will be operated by a four cabin 777-300ER with the following schedule:
NH114 Haneda to Houston departing 10:20AM arriving 8:40AM
NH113 Houston to Haneda departing 1:10PM arriving 5:00PM (+1 day)
New ANA Haneda To San Jose Flight
As of March 29, 2020, ANA will be shifting their daily San Jose flight from Narita to Haneda. The new flight will be operated by a three cabin 787-8 with the following schedule:
NH120 Haneda to San Jose departing 5:05PM arriving 10:30AM
NH119 San Jose to Haneda departing 12:20PM arriving 3:20PM (+1 day)
New ANA Haneda To Seattle Flight
As of March 29, 2020, ANA will be shifting their daily Seattle flight from Narita to Haneda. The new flight will be operated by a three cabin 787-8 with the following schedule:
NH118 Haneda to Seattle departing 9:00PM arriving 2:10PM
NH117 Seattle to Haneda departing 4:40PM arriving 7:00PM (+1 day)
New ANA Haneda To Washington Flight
As of March 29, 2020, ANA will be shifting their daily Washington Dulles flight from Narita to Haneda. The new flight will be operated by a four cabin 777-300ER with the following schedule:
NH102 Haneda to Washington departing 10:55AM arriving 10:35AM
NH101 Washington to Haneda departing 1:10PM arriving 4:15PM (+1 day)
Second Daily ANA Haneda To Los Angeles Flight
ANA currently flies three times daily to Los Angeles — twice out of Narita and once out of Haneda. As of March 29, 2020, ANA will be shifting one of their daily Narita to Los Angeles flights to instead operate out of Haneda, meaning they’ll have one daily flight from Narita and two daily flights from Haneda.
The new flight will be operated by a four cabin 777-300ER with the following schedule:
NH126 Haneda to Los Angeles departing 9:05PM arriving 3:05PM
NH125 Los Angeles to Haneda departing 5:05PM arriving 9:15PM (+1 day)
ANA Adding Haneda To San Francisco Flight
This is the latest update. Initially ANA didn’t reveal when this flight would launch or what the schedule would look like, but that has now changed.
As of March 29, 2020, ANA will be launching 3x weekly flights from Haneda to San Francisco. It’s interesting to see less than a daily frequency, since most other flights are daily.
The airline has six daily Haneda slots for the US, so it would appear that they’re not fully utilizing them. That makes me believe that they probably simply don’t have the available aircraft to operate the flight daily.
The new flight will be operated by a four cabin 777-300ER with the following schedule:
NH108 Haneda to San Francisco departing 10:55PM arriving 4:25PM [Tue, Fri, Sun]
NH107 San Francisco to Haneda departing 1:45AM arriving 5:00AM (+1 day) [Mon, Wed, Sat]
The new flight is expected to go on sale on Monday, January 27, 2020, so this could be a good opportunity to snag some award seats, as I’d say it’s fairly likely they’ll have some award availability.
While everyone has different timing preferences, personally I find those times to be quite brutal, especially for the westbound flight.
What Narita Flights Does That Leave?
With six new US routes for ANA out of Tokyo Haneda, what does that leave for their Narita service to the US? Looking at the summer 2020 schedule, ANA will continue to operate:
- One of two daily Chicago flights out of Narita
- One of three daily Los Angeles flights out of Narita
- One of two daily New York JFK flights out of Narita
- One daily San Francisco flight out of Narita (in addition to the new 3x weekly Haneda flight)
- Two daily Honolulu flights out of Narita
ANA does note that Narita’s international network will expand throughout 2020 and beyond, adding new connections between North America and Asia.
Bottom Line
ANA will be making huge adjustments to their US route network in the summer of 2020, just ahead of the Olympics. In general this shift to Haneda is good news for those actually visiting Tokyo, while it’s generally bad news for those connecting beyond Japan.
The Haneda flights aren’t banked as well as the Narita flights were, so this won’t be ideal for connections. I guess we also have to wait and see what US routes are added out of Narita, though frankly I don’t expect that much growth, since ANA isn’t taking delivery of new planes at a very fast pace.
The last of the above routes will be going on sale this coming Monday, as the new 3x weekly Haneda to San Francisco flight will finally be loaded into the schedule. Hopefully there’s some award availability.
What do you make of ANA switching most of their US route network to Haneda?
Hello Ben,
I know many airlines are shifting from NRT to HND, since it is closer to Tokyo, but has anyone ever tried to get to Tokyo or Shinjuku from Haneda? I travel to Japan every 2 - 3 months on JAL from either DFW or SFO and when I arrive HND at 6:55pm from SFO, the only way I can get to my hotel in Tokyo is to take the monorail to Hamamatsucho...
Hello Ben,
I know many airlines are shifting from NRT to HND, since it is closer to Tokyo, but has anyone ever tried to get to Tokyo or Shinjuku from Haneda? I travel to Japan every 2 - 3 months on JAL from either DFW or SFO and when I arrive HND at 6:55pm from SFO, the only way I can get to my hotel in Tokyo is to take the monorail to Hamamatsucho station and take a taxi from there. Or I can take the train, but have to transfer at Shinagawa to get to Shinjuku or Tokyo. These trains are local train and it's very inconvenient for travelers with many luggages. On the other hand, if you arrive at NRT, there is a Narita Express that takes you direct to Tokyo, Shinjuku and other major stations around Tokyo area. Also, there are more Airport Limousine Bus services since NRT always has been an international airport. HND was a domestic airport for many years after NRT opened, but with the influx of increasing tourist flying into HND, the airport and Tokyo has not made significant changes to accommodate the tourists. I contacted both Haneda airport and Airport Limousine Bus regarding my obervation/comment, but have not heard back from them. And Tokyo Olympics us coming soon!
Hi Ben! We scored two first class tickets with miles on the new flight from San Francisco to Haneda. Do you know whether these new flights will be on new vessel. I’m asking because I want to experience the new first class cabin. Any input would be great. Thanks!
Air Canada has switched all their flights to HND recently too.
Does anyone know when it first started?
Well so much for using the ANA IAD-NRT flight for inter-Asia connections. Layover times via HND are horrendous.
Seems like a YMMV situation.
Currently flights from the US to both NRT and HND (on JAL and ANA) come in too late for me to get a connection to minor Hokkaido airports like KUH or AKJ, but the SJC-HND 3:20pm or SFO-HND 5AM arrivals will allow me to catch connecting flights to my final destination without spending a night in Tokyo. (Would also mean a connecting flight in the US though..)
ANA are also splitting their operations between Haneda T2 and the Intl Terminal (to be renamed T3)
They have built an extension to T2 to accommodate international flights as well as new ANA lounges: https://www.aviationwire.jp/archives/130342
ANA group press release on move: http://www.anahd.co.jp/group/en/pr/202001/20200124.html
@lucky any idea if the LAX-HND NH 126 and 125 will be on ANA's new configured 777 i.e. the suite.
3x weekly HND-SFO could go daily once ANA has retrofitted all 77Ws with the new cabin interiors.
Someone made a good point above. These changes from Narita to Haneda may be driven by the Olympics. While I think Haneda is a nicer airport, I am not sure it matters which of the two I connect on when transiting from US to elsewhere in Asia. Airlines moving away from Tokyo as a hub is a different question. I would think China would offer better hubs from North America in the future.
As a Star Alliance carrier that code shares with United, I find ANA's relative lack of service to SFO to be a bit odd. Even SJC has a daily HND flight coming, yet SFO only has the one daily NRT and a new 3x/wk HND route. You'd think that SFO would be ANA's biggest US base, given their relationship with UA and SFO's strategic location for trans-Pacific flights.
Where's all this capacity at HND coming from? Did they expand their facilities, re-allocate these slots from elsewhere, or were they not operating at capacity to begin with?
That's a shame. I always preferred connecting through Narita to southeast Asia from IAH when not on BR to Taipei (best option IMO). One alternative would be to fly UA to NRT but the overall experience is much less than what NH offers.
@avi
I just cannot believe this.
You inquire:
"I have a connection in June in Narita from an ANA flight from Seattle to a Singapore Airlines flight. Will I have to switch airports?"
Yet the site you list as your website is http://www.travelwithavi.com/, which promises "Customized Vacation Planning for the Cost Conscious Traveler".
WTF, seriously, WTF? You market customized vacation planning to others, FOR A PRICE, when you cannot figure out how to read your...
@avi
I just cannot believe this.
You inquire:
"I have a connection in June in Narita from an ANA flight from Seattle to a Singapore Airlines flight. Will I have to switch airports?"
Yet the site you list as your website is http://www.travelwithavi.com/, which promises "Customized Vacation Planning for the Cost Conscious Traveler".
WTF, seriously, WTF? You market customized vacation planning to others, FOR A PRICE, when you cannot figure out how to read your own itinerary?
Ahhhh... This explained why my NH174 (Jun 2020) got canceled and ANA auto re-booking me to NH114 from HND to IAH, which suck really bad cuz I only have 3h50mins to run quickly from Narita Airport to HND ( previous flight SGN-NRT red eyes )
I received an email notifying me of the change in connecting flights from SGN to LAX on March 30, now requiring a transfer from NRT to HND and arriving LAX several hours later than originally scheduled. I called ANA (spent approximately 40m waiting on the phone). I asked to cancel the flight and issue a full refund (including seats), since I want to make alternate arrangements. They cancelled it immediately no questions asked.
I have an upcoming trip in ANA for June 2020, they transferred me to NH 125&126 from flights NH 175&176 and instead of NRT now HND..Just short adjustment on the hours is just fine with me at least not on a different day..
Hello Ben. What would be useful is how it impacts people already booked on those flights during that time. Automatically switched? Cancelled?
Can anyone answer the questions regarding existing 2020 reservation to and from Narita?
Stoked to have an LAX-HND option that doesn’t dump me in Tokyo at 5am!
By 'shifting' you mean they will stop the -NRT route and replace it with the HND one?
A little worried here as I have a sea-nrt-sin flight next Apr.
Bye bye NH1, hello NH101
I love ANA as an airline. They make me feel so loved.
I just checked our itinerary IAD to NRT and back on award flights first class in April and May 2020 and it still says NRT so they apparently haven’t updated. Wondering how that will happen
The real question is whether Tokyo can sustain the increase in seats because of the attempts by ANA, JL, AA and UA as well as HA to maintain NRT as a connecting airport while growing HND. There will be more than enough capacity just at HND to service the current level of local Tokyo demand and yet ANA and JL have committed to maintaining hubs at 2 Tokyo airports, something no other airline does in...
The real question is whether Tokyo can sustain the increase in seats because of the attempts by ANA, JL, AA and UA as well as HA to maintain NRT as a connecting airport while growing HND. There will be more than enough capacity just at HND to service the current level of local Tokyo demand and yet ANA and JL have committed to maintaining hubs at 2 Tokyo airports, something no other airline does in any other city on the planet. Given that HND is so much closer to Tokyo, it will be hard for the remaining flights at NRT to be viable given the likely shift of higher fare local Tokyo passengers from NRT to HND. That exact phenomenon happened in London when Heathrow was opened to all US airlines. United is particularly vulnerable to the hope that NRT will remain a viable, premium revenue local market. I have a feeling that we will see a number of these NRT-US flights trimmed in the coming years.
Hm. Have an award flight set up through Virgin Atlantic for May from Dulles, I wonder how this will impact everything...
will I automatically be migrated over to the new flight to Haneda?
Ben -- do you have any idea which of the two LAX/NRT flights will be going away? I believe NH176 departs at 4:05 p.m. and NH6 departs at 5:00 p.m.
Will they simply map over whichever one gets changed to the HND flight or will they put those on the cancelled flight onto the relatively similar departure out of NRT? I'm booked on NH176 and much as I'd rather fly out of HND, I don't think I want to fly at 9:05 p.m.
@Ivan Y
With HND being closer the arrival time into Tokyo for most passengers will be a minimal shift.
This is a promising change, but curious to see how it effects existing itineraries. I am booked IAH-NRT end of March and returning early April. Guess I fly into NRT and out HND.
There will be 3 HNL-NRT flights when the third A380 enters service in 2020.
> ANA will be shifting their daily Seattle flight from Narita to Haneda.
> The new flight will be operated by a three cabin 787-8 with the following schedule:
> NH118 Haneda to Seattle departing 9:00PM arriving 2:10PM
> NH117 Seattle to Haneda departing 4:40PM arriving 7:00PM (+1 day)
I regularly fly SEA-NRT on ANA. These times are dramatically different from current service. Hmmm.
Does that "three cabin 787-8" include an F cabin?...
> ANA will be shifting their daily Seattle flight from Narita to Haneda.
> The new flight will be operated by a three cabin 787-8 with the following schedule:
> NH118 Haneda to Seattle departing 9:00PM arriving 2:10PM
> NH117 Seattle to Haneda departing 4:40PM arriving 7:00PM (+1 day)
I regularly fly SEA-NRT on ANA. These times are dramatically different from current service. Hmmm.
Does that "three cabin 787-8" include an F cabin? (or is the "third cabin" "premium economy")?
"I am still in shock that HND has no priority pass lounge…" - I had the same experience of no PP lounges at Itami in Osaka I couldn't believe it. There is no PP in hakodate airport. I understand its a really tiny airport but I have been in smaller airports that had PP lounges, but there really is no excuse with HND and Itami those are not small airports.
When I try a dummy booking the ANA website still shows two flights from Narita and one from Haneda for May 29 the date we're traveling. Maybe they haven't gotten around to updating their schedule yet.
So if we already have a flight on ANA booked from Narita to Dulles during that time (May 2020) what happens? Is it automatically switched to Haneda?
I have a ANA flight from LA to Narita in May and then a separate booked connection on JAL to Singapore from Haneda. That ticket had a relatively tight 4 1/2 hour layover where I would have to switch airports. I guess this switch turned out in my favor :)
if your destination is Tokyo or Yokohama that's great. If you're just connecting to elsewhere in Asia this creates a lot of problems. Unless they're shifting all of those flights too. I know some SE Asia flights do operate to HND now, but it's just a much smaller airport. As some one who has used IAD-NRT several time to connect to SE Asia this seems like a step backwards for me.
Was hoping that they would adjust the JFK to HND flight for an arrival into HND at an earlier time to allow for connections. Specifically, a connection to GMP Seoul. GMP is closer to the city that ICN, just like HND is to Tokyo than NRT. I know JAL has this but I would like to use Ultimate Rewards points for ANA.
Hmmm, i already booked ANA flights next year with a connection in NRT. I wonder how that would be impacted...
@ Lucky / others — how soon should we expect existing tickets to reflect new flight number & route? Have a LifeMiles booking for later in 2020.
Separately, IAH-NRT is 11:30 am - 3:20 pm and IAH-HND will be 1:10 pm - 5:00 pm, so travelers will be getting into Tokyo even later.
For *A PEK will be the hub in Northeast Asia, and for OW it always has been HKG rather than NRT but it is now an uphill battle for OW given HKG's location away from Northeast Asia (backtrack from both Europe and North America) and what goes on in HKG...
@ Adam L
It actually looks like JL is trying to focus more on O&D traffic, a backlash from last bankruptcy a decade ago. Then it looks like NH is trying to make HND a hub, with massive Japanese connection opportunities and many flights to Asia out of HND. Actually JL/NH prices are still quite high ex-Asia(even from outside Japan) so they will find no problem with yields at least...
However, making TYO...
@ Adam L
It actually looks like JL is trying to focus more on O&D traffic, a backlash from last bankruptcy a decade ago. Then it looks like NH is trying to make HND a hub, with massive Japanese connection opportunities and many flights to Asia out of HND. Actually JL/NH prices are still quite high ex-Asia(even from outside Japan) so they will find no problem with yields at least...
However, making TYO a connecting hub won't be easy with what we see between NRT/HND. ICN/PEK/PKX/PVG will be the Northeast Asian hub to go for the forseeable future...
Please please please please have new first class suites from ORD to HND by next August!
Well that certainly puts NH behind OZ/BR/CX with the SE Asian diaspora market lining up at 1am
@Jon
HKG has like 9 direct US flights, SIN has four. Tokyo US has 20 US destinations for NRT alone (though two of those are Hawaii). So while I get the point that there are other potential hubs for *A and OW, making these moves to HND doesn't seem sustainable, even if for only the Olympics.
I wonder would these new routes be available for redemption with ANA through Virgin.
Also worth noting that lots of non-US NH and JL flights will also move to Haneda
With the Japanese government expanding foreign carrier access to HND, ANA and JAL don't really have much of a choice but to follow along. And given that they serve much more of the Japanese domestic market (which operates out of HND), this is probably desirable for them anyway. ANA and JAL get a lot more Japanese flyers who are looking at domestic connections than UA/DL/AA. I was wondering when ANA was going to move their...
With the Japanese government expanding foreign carrier access to HND, ANA and JAL don't really have much of a choice but to follow along. And given that they serve much more of the Japanese domestic market (which operates out of HND), this is probably desirable for them anyway. ANA and JAL get a lot more Japanese flyers who are looking at domestic connections than UA/DL/AA. I was wondering when ANA was going to move their IAD-NRT flight to HND, and it turns out the answer is just one day after United does so!
@Jon: I suspect SIN won't take too much of the growing hub traffic from North America since it's so far and is a backtrack to anywhere else in northern Asia. The real change is that connecting hubs in general are faltering because the 787/A350 make it so much easier to just launch direct point-to-point international flights. The Asian countries are still willing to build new airports or expand existing ones so they aren't as heavily slot-limited as Europe, which makes direct flights more practical.
I am still in shock that HND has no priority pass lounge...
@Joe @Avi
Lol. Wait, what? Why are ya'll asking Lucky? Check your itineraries!
Unless yall want to send me your booking codes. I'll take care of it for you ;-)
@Adam L
As planes can fly further, the demand for TYO to be that hub for connecting traffic through Asia is lessened significantly. This is precisely why DL has shuttered their NRT hub. So if TYO demand is O/D rather than connecting, serving those markets directly from HND makes more sense.
For connecting traffic, HKG is far more popular for OneWorld than TYO due to its central proximity to so many destinations. Singapore is...
@Adam L
As planes can fly further, the demand for TYO to be that hub for connecting traffic through Asia is lessened significantly. This is precisely why DL has shuttered their NRT hub. So if TYO demand is O/D rather than connecting, serving those markets directly from HND makes more sense.
For connecting traffic, HKG is far more popular for OneWorld than TYO due to its central proximity to so many destinations. Singapore is better positioned for StarAlliance. Seoul is better positioned for Skyteam. Now that planes can fly those distances from North America, Tokyo is less ideal for connecting in comparison.
I have a confirmed ticket on NH from IAH to NRT and onto SGN next May. What is going to happen to my itinerary now? Am I responsible for getting myself across the town from HND to NRT? I find it ridiculous that JL and NH only move North American flights to HND without thinking about their SE Asia connecting flights......
This is an interesting trend. Is Japan no longer a connecting hub for *A and OW in northeast Asia? Are flights to China so cheap that Tokyo is only good for O/D traffic? Seems strange to fathom.
Thanks Lucky. I have a connection in June in Narita from an ANA flight from Seattle to a Singapore Airlines flight. Will I have to switch airports? I don't think I'll have time with a 2 hour layover. Any ideas how they will handle that? Thanks!
HND lounges are going to be even worse of a zoo.
Correction: LAX has 3 daily flights- 2x NRT + 1x HND. One NRT flight is shifting to HND.
@ Justin -- Good catch, thanks. Fixed.
I read somewhere else that JAL had filed for similar changes from NRT to HND ahead of 2020 Olympics
@ Terence -- Indeed, separate post coming about that, but figured it was too much info for a single post. :)