Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE
Japan has turned down the latest effort by US negotiators to agree on an 'open skies' bilateral air services agreement, in the first meeting between the two sides since the last bilateral agreement in early 1998.
Talks were held in Tokyo in mid-November, but ended with an impasse on the renewed US effort. A fresh round of talks is expected to be held in Washington by March next year.
US airlines hold about one-third of the slots at Tokyo's crowded Narita airport, and are pushing hard to maintain this proportion once the new runway is opened in 2002. The new Narita runway will only be 2,180m (7,150ft) long, and will therefore be primarily used for aircraft serving intra-Asian routes, and not by long haul traffic.
Japan is reluctant to grant new operating rights before the opening, and aviation officials have said they want the US share of slots at the airport to be reduced. Japanese negotiators also say that the USA would be the main beneficiary of an open skies accord.
The current bilateral, signed in 1998, is a four-year agreement replacing a 1952 accord which increased US traffic rights into Japan beyond previous levels and named airlines including All Nippon Airways (ANA), FedEx, Japan Airlines (JAL), Northwest Airlines and United Airlines as "incumbent carriers" with a wide range of operating rights between the two countries.
• ANA's new international subsidiary, Air Japan, has announced that it plans to introduce US flights in March. The carrier, which will initially operate only between Osaka-Kansai and Seoul from January, has also applied for rights to operate between Osaka and Guam from 25 March. An Osaka-Honolulu service is planned from 2002.
Source: Flight International
