The U.S. Transportation Department said yesterday that the United States proposed a free-market aviation pact with Japan in a Sept. 25 letter from Transportation Secretary Federico Pena.
The move could solve the two countries' troubled aviation problems and clear the way for more Hawaii-Japan flights.
U.S. Transportation spokesman William Mosley said an agreement to end government restrictions on aviation between the two nations and allow the market place to dictate routes and frequencies would resolve the many U.S. and Japanese aviation problems now outstanding. Talks on the dispute broke off last summer.
Today a senior Transport Ministry official told Kyodo News Service that Japan was willing to discuss the proposal if talks on the matter are held within the framework of ongoing passenger aviation negotiations. The official, however, said that rectifying current aviation interests, which Japan says favors U.S. carriers under a 1952 bilateral civil aviation treaty, should come first, suggesting that Japan would not meet the U.S. demand for talks on complete liberalization of civil aviation.
Hawaii's tourist industry wants the Japan-U.S. air routes as open as possible because of the islands' economic dependence on 2 million Japanese tourists.
Japan Airlines, Continental Airlines Inc., Northwest Airlines Corp. and United Airlines, part of UAL Corp., all have said they are entitled to more flights between Hawaii and Japan and the mainland-Japan direct, under the 1952 pact.
Japan Airlines says it is already entitled to more Hawaii and mainland flights than the United States is allowing. The U.S. carriers also want more Hawaii-Japan flights, which would require a new pact. JAL and two other Japanese carriers, All Nippon Airways and Japan Air System want new authorization for Hawaii flights too.