Andrew Mollet/TOKYO
US and Japanese negotiators meeting in Tokyo failed to reach a new bilateral air-services agreement by the 30 September deadline set in July. The US delegation says that sufficient progress has been made for talks to continue, however, and another round is due for the week beginning 20 October in Washington DC.
The US negotiating team says that some progress has been made towards guaranteeing incumbent carriers FedEx, Northwest and United rights to introduce services beyond Japan to destinations in Asia. Among the stumbling blocks has been US insistence that these three carriers be given unrestricted freedom to fly through Japan and on to other countries.
Japan is not prepared to commit to full open skies at the moment, saying that it would lead to monopolistic alliances dominated by US carriers. It has agreed to the elimination of all restrictions on the incumbent carriers' capacity, frequency and routes, has accepted liberalisation as a goal, and does not rule out a future move to open skies, says a US negotiator.
US negotiators hope that it will be possible to increase the number of US passenger-airlines authorised to serve Japan. It is understood that the two countries have agreed in principle that All Nippon Airways be given unrestricted rights to the USA.
Although progress has been made towards a substantial increase in capacity for existing non-incumbent carriers, such as American Airlines, Delta and Continental Micronesia, the USA wants them to be allowed to operate more than 91 flights a week between the two countries, but Tokyo wants to peg the limit at 70. The USA says that Japan is also resisting increasing opportunities for non-incumbent cargo carriers.
Japan's vice-transport minister, Masahiko Kurono, says that he believes an accord will be reached in October, even though many of the US demands are still too excessive for Japan to accept.
Source: Flight International
