Delta is giving up on Guam, ceding the Tokyo Narita to Guam route to United and JAL. It is also cutting service between Narita and Shanghai. The Narita hub keeps getting smaller.
In January I wrote about Delta ending service between Tokyo and Taipei. That service ended in May and now Guam and Shanghai will end in January.
Delta will still serve Shanghai, now an important focus city with partner China Eastern, from the USA, but no longer from Tokyo. China Eastern already flies the route three times per day, so the extra Delta flight was deemed unnecessary.
Guam is a more interesting case. Delta currently flies twice daily between Guam and Tokyo. Untied has three daily flights while Japan Airlines (JAL) has one. By suspending service to Guam from Tokyo Narita, Delta will no longer have any service to Guam. Did United undercut Delta in pricing? Looking at fares, JAL is cheaper by a few bucks on most days, but economy fares seem sustainable at a tad over $500USD r/t.
Where Delta Will Still Fly from Tokyo Narita
Delta will continue to call Tokyo Narita a hub and I think that’s more than fair, even as the hub continues to shrink.
After Shanghai and Guam are cut, Delta will continue to serve the following cities from Narita:
- Atlanta
- Detroit
- Honolulu
- Koror (Palau)
- Manila
- Portland
- Saipan
- Seattle
- Singapore
Five of the nine destinations (the bolded cities) are not to other hubs.
I still wonder how long Manila and Singapore can last…
CONCLUSION
Routes cuts happen all the time, though they usually make fewer headlines than route additions. Delta continues to whittle away its Tokyo Narita hub and I only see this trend continuing. The market has changed, demand has changed, yields have changed, and maintaining a Tokyo hub just doesn’t make much sense.
image: 小野 優太 / Wikimedia Commons
now watch all the DL apologists come out from their moms’ basement and claim how NRT is so yesterday when the exact same crowd of ostriches proudly boasts how these beach markets are self-sustainable.
* … just 6 months earlier
“Untied has three daily flights while Japan Airlines (JAL) has one.” Hehehehe, I see what you did there.
I’m waiting to see what Delta and Korean announce. I’d much rather fly Korean through ICN to get to Tokyo. I’m based in LA, but I’d fly from SFO just to get on that 747.
They also still fly to HNL from NRT – nine cities.
Watch the UA plants come out from their moms’ basement and try to stir up anti-OAL criticism when none actually exists
Do you know when the Shanghai/ Tokyo service will end? I’m booked on it in December.
Feb 01, 2018 is the last flight.
Gary (View from the Wing) covered this a few days ago–I did not notice it before publishing this post.
http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2017/09/18/delta-will-stop-serving-guam-january-8-leaving-united-us-carrier-flying-us-territory/
As a former Delta employee, this has been planned for at least a year.
I saw a speech given by Ed Bastian earlier this spring and he said the plan is to keep cutting NRT flights, and to shift DL’s East Asia focus to ICN and a greater partnership with Korean Air. Also, Haneda is much more attractive than NRT is anyway, from DLs perspective.
LOL Haneda sucks. Half the planes you have to board outside from a shuttle bus. Narita is a far superior airport in all ways
I prefer Narita myself, but it is rather far out of Tokyo.
Im a solid Delta passenger, because of the skymiles and from which I inherited from the northwest airlines… I only fly nwa and now delta to and from manila…. I know how the codesharing works and just puzzled by when I try to book a flight to manila, flight is always operated by korean airlines. What is the use of booking thru delta website as if manila and tokyo service is like not operational