Northwest drops
flight from Osaka
to Honolulu

It cites the yen's fall
in cutting one of its two daily
flights on the route

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Northwest Airlines will drop one of its two daily Osaka-Honolulu flights starting April 5, citing reduced demand because of the low value of the yen against the dollar.

The airline said it has a Boeing 747 flight on the route each day and one DC-10 flight. It is dropping the DC-10 flight, taking out 280 seats a day or 1,960 seats a week.

"It's strictly the outbound Japan market, with the yen being weak," said Doug Killian, director of international communications at Northwest headquarters in Minnesota.

However, he said Northwest is still positive about Japan-Hawaii tourism and has plenty of other flights. Northwest still has 14 flights a week from Tokyo to Honolulu and a daily Nagoya-Honolulu flight, he noted.

"We are still very committed to the Hawaii market. We expect the Japanese economy to improve" and Northwest can add aircraft whenever the demand is there, Killian said.

He said Northwest is repositioning one DC-10 aircraft from the Osaka-Honolulu route to the Osaka-Taipei route where demand is stronger.

Northwest plans for its Tokyo-Hawaii service follow similar moves by competitors.

United Airlines has already cut its Tokyo-Honolulu service to 10 flights a week, from 14. Japan Airlines reduced its Tokyo-Honolulu service in November to 21 flights a week from 28, but increased its Tokyo-Kona service to daily from three a week.

JAL has also said it plans to start a weekly service to Honolulu from Hiroshima in Western Japan in April, going to two flights a week if there is enough demand. JAL says it does well in Hawaii travel from areas away from the big cities of Tokyo and Osaka where worries about the Japanese economy are strongest.