British Airways Coat Of Arms (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways has extended the temporary suspension of flights from London Heathrow to Tokyo Haneda until late May 2022.
BA had suspended the route for the winter season. It was due to resume on Wednesday 30 March 2022. The route will now resume from Sunday 29 May 2022 at the earliest.
Flights beyond this date have been taken off sale until Monday 31 October, which suggests the suspension will be extended further.
Update Monday 4 April: The route is now suspended until Sunday 30 October 2022.
Japan Airlines Logo (Image Credit: Japan Airlines)
Japan Airlines has temporarily suspended its codeshare with British Airways on flights between Europe and Japan.
BA & Japan Airlines’ Joint Business
BA, Finnair and Japan Airlines operate a joint business between Europe and Japan.
The three airlines codeshare on each other’s flights and offer reciprocal local connections.
Following sanctions imposed against Russia by the UK and the European Union, and retaliatory measures, Finnair has suspended all flights between Helsinki and Tokyo as these fly over Russian airspace.
BA had already temporarily suspended flights to Tokyo Haneda for commercial reasons. The airline is due to restart these on 30 March 2022.
Japan Airlines continues to fly between Europe and Japan over Russian airspace. It has only suspended flights between Tokyo Haneda and Moscow.
Japan Airlines (“JAL”) is to add a second daily London Heathrow – Tokyo Haneda flight with effect from Sunday 29 October 2017.
This means that, together with its joint-venture partner British Airways, JAL will offer four flights a day between London and Tokyo. BA will continue to fly to both Tokyo Narita and Tokyo Haneda airports daily.
The new JAL flight (JL41 & J42) will depart London Heathrow at 09:30 and return to London Heathrow at 06:25. The flight will be operated by a Boeing 787 in a three class configuration.
It’s noteworthy that BA and JAL have chosen to add capacity between London and Japan when history has shown that inbound visitors from Japan to Europe can be very sensitive to terrorist incidents.
In addition, BA and JAL have chosen to a fourth daily frequency from London to Tokyo, rather than add a flight to an unserved destination in Japan such as Osaka or Nagoya. This does give BA and JAL a substantial frequency advantage over All Nippon Airlines which is the only other airline to fly between London and Tokyo after Virgin Atlantic withdrew from Tokyo on 31 January 2015.
The new flight will be on sale at Japan Airlines from Friday 14 July 2017.
Iberia is to examine opening new routes (and in some cases re-instating routes) to Tokyo, Doha, Johannesburg, Toronto, Guadalajara (Mexico), Managua (Nicaragua), San Juan de Puerto Rico, Brasilia and Asuncion (Paraguay) the airline announced today, 31 July 2015.
The routes are likely to launch in 2016 and 2017 and are subject to its parent company, International Airlines Group, placing orders for additional aircraft, including five Airbus 330-200 aircraft, with Airbus.
IAG also hopes to order a further eight Airbus A350-900 aircraft as a replacement for Iberia’s existing fleet. An announcement could be made as early as next week.
That said, it has to be said it is somewhat unusual for an airline to announce a possible order for aircraft in advance of it being finalised.
Nor do airlines normally give away much with regard to future route launches, for obvious competitive reasons (though negotiations with airports on landing fees could be a factor).
Of the routes mentioned Doha and Tokyo are noteworthy as these would be the airline’s only routes to the Middle East and Asia and would be the airline’s first step in making Madrid a global (rather than purely west bound) long-haul hub. We assume they would be supported by code shares with fellow Oneworld alliance partners Qatar Airways and Japan Airlines.
It is noteworthy that Hong Kong and Singapore are not listed, particularly Hong Kong as it is the hub of fellow alliance partner Cathay Pacific.
The launch of more routes to Central and South America also cements Iberia’s position in this market. We are surprised not to see more North American destinations, but these are of course well served by British Airways.
Virgin Atlantic has announced a significant over-haul of its network, suspending a number of non-US routes. Mumbai & Tokyo are suspended from 31 January 2015. Seasonal flights to Vancouver & Cape Town are suspended from 11 October 2014 and 26 April 2015.
Virgin Atlantic has today announced a major over-haul of its long-haul network, in what is arguably the single biggest chance to its network since the events of 11 September 2001.
Virgin’s year-round services from London Heathrow to Mumbai and Tokyo Narita will be suspended from 31 January 2015.
Virgin’s seasonal flights from London Heathrow to Vancouver and Cape Town will be suspended permanently from 11 October 2014 and 26 April 2015 respectively.
