Comments on: AWESOMENESS ALERT: Ark Hills to get Chopper Flights to Narita!

By: Joe Jones

Joe Jones — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:58:11 +0000

Lameness alert—according to a contact of mine who works at Mori Building:

“The main heliport used is in Sakura as the airspace on NRT itself is often socked in with other traffic and the Sakura one does not have those limitations although it is only a short limo ride away. Limo in this case is not a bus but a limo. So NRT arrival (post customs) to ARK is 30 minutes which includes a short ride off the airport property to the adjacent heliprt and the a 15 minute flight to ARK.”

Apparently it’s running for 38,000 yen each way.

By: Joe Jones

Joe Jones — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:58:18 +0000

Kansai people rarely pay for first or business class. I can’t say why. Old-school Osaka makehen business culture? Everyone idolizes Matsushita-san?

By: Jade Oc

Jade Oc — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:06:58 +0000

Why would Kansai travellers be the stingy type? To save the NEX fare?

By: Joe Jones

Joe Jones — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:19:43 +0000

Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Kansai is a pretty crappy travel market. The local economy is based on heavy industry which isn’t well-connected with many other cities beyond East Asia. There are a lot of outbound tourists and more than a few inbound tourists, but they’re mostly of the stingy type that don’t really drive the airlines’ decision making, except to the extent that the airlines say “tell them to connect in Narita.”

By: Roy Berman

Roy Berman — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:02:22 +0000

“NYC-KIX-TPE is a bit more credible, though—makes more sense than Anchorage, at least.”

Well, that once interests me because currently there is no direct KIX-NYC service. You have to transfer either in Narita, or somewhere more West in the US, like Detroit or SF.

By: Adamu

Adamu — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:59:44 +0000

I just gotta say:

it’s “atop Roppongi Hills” NOT “atop of Roppongi Hills”

By: Joe Jones

Joe Jones — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:54:45 +0000

Yeah. Those fifth-freedom rights are pretty common. United and Northwest make tons of money on intra-Asia flights from Narita, and there are a few other cases of Asian carriers getting these rights through Japan (Singapore Airlines and Korean Air fly between Narita and LAX, and China Airlines flew to Honolulu through Haneda back in the 90s). JAL has a similar deal with the US for its insanely long Tokyo-New York-Sao Paulo run—they are allowed to carry local traffic between JFK and Brazil.

These routes can be political sh-tstorms if they are only taking advantage of the intermediary market. Northwest had a JFK-KIX-Sydney flight back in the early 90s, but they had to pull it because the Japanese government complained. Only something like 10% of the passengers were making the full trip between JFK and Sydney, probably because Japan is so far out of the way compared to a nonstop, so the stopover seemed to simply be a way to cannibalize Japanese carriers’ market share to Australia. NYC-KIX-TPE is a bit more credible, though—makes more sense than Anchorage, at least.

By: Roy Berman

Roy Berman — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:25:06 +0000

BTW, this tidbit from Joe’s link is interesting too.
“The MoU also includes additional 5th freedom rights out of Osaka for Taiwanese carriers.

In addition to granting Los Angeles and Seattle in 2008, Japan is granting Taiwanese carriers the rights to operate passenger service to Dallas, Houston and New York.”
Does that mean Taiwanese carriers might provide more direct service from Kansai and/or Taipei to New York?

By: Roy Berman

Roy Berman — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:23:30 +0000

I noticed the Songshan announcement recently myself. I actually believe that the main reason for instituting that route is to avoid controversy over Songshan’s use in the recently instituted direct flights between Taiwan and China. Naturally, due to the status of relations between ROC and PRC those flights are neither officially international or domestic, but merely referred to as “cross straight.” Songshan was until recently classified as a domestic airport, but with domestic air travel shriveling up due to competition from the recently introduced Taiwanese shinkansen (高鐵) and all international travel having been moved some time ago to Taoyuan (nee Chiang Kai Shek) Airport, Songshan was supposed to be saved from superfluousness as the main hub for cross-straight flights. To avoid specifically classifying such flights as domestic, Songshan was reclassified as an international airport, maintaining the politically necessary ambiguity. However, cross-straight traffic has been significantly weaker than expected and so someone proposed adding “local” international flights to the mix. This also has the advantage of providing unambiguous international flights, allaying criticism that Songshan was reclassified as international purely for the cross-straight flights controversy.

I should add, there is actually a third reason for Songshan’s reclassification. While Taoyuan airport is pretty good, it is almost an hour from central Taipei, and the rail link won’t be open until about 2013. While taking an hour to get to the airport doesn’t seem too bad when you’re flying around the world, for a hop over to Japan it adds a huge percentage of travel time. Songshan, actually the former location of a Japanese air force base, is RIGHT in the city-so close that I more than once biked to it from my house while exploring the city without even realizing where I was.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:21:54 +0000

Wow you work in Ark Hills? I’m just ten minutes away…and am in your building all the time.