LV asks JAL to pick up Tokyo flights being dropped by Northwest

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2000 | 11:10 a.m.

Northwest Airlines will discontinue its nonstop service between Las Vegas and Tokyo next year and local tourism officials are already lobbying rival Japan Airlines to pick up the slack.

A Northwest spokesman said the Minneapolis-based airline would end its twice-a-week flights on April 1. The company made history by offering the first nonstop service from Las Vegas to Asia when it inaugurated service to McCarran International Airport from Tokyo's Nagoya International Airport in June 1998.

Within months, Tokyo-based JAL began its own direct service between the two cities and has steadily increased service to five days a week.

"It's disappointing anytime anybody reduces air service to Las Vegas," said Harry Kassap, manager of air service development at McCarran. "But I don't think it's a reflection of the market at all. It was basically a Monday and Thursday flight vs. five flights a week operated by a solid competitor.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll get back to seven flights a week," Kassap said.

Irene Jackson, a spokeswoman for JAL in New York, said it's too early to tell whether her company would add service.

"We're really happy with our load factors (to Las Vegas)," Jackson said. "I don't know why Northwest is not."

Doug Killian, director of international communications for Northwest, said the company has had an excellent partnership with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, but in the end, the route was not hitting minimum financial targets for the service.

He did not say whether the flights were ever profitable for Northwest, adding that the route initially was popular when the airline offered low promotional fares.

Killian said the 371-passenger Boeing 747 jet used on the route is being reallocated to flights between Tokyo and Minneapolis, where service will be expanded from 10 to 14 flights a week.

Northwest has hub airports at both Minneapolis and Tokyo so the two flights a day not only would support traffic in those cities but to other connecting points in North America and Asia. Killian added that Minneapolis, a city of 2.2 million people, also has several corporations that conduct business in Japan -- making the route lucrative for business travelers.

He said Northwest will continue to operate one-stop, change-of-planes service between Tokyo and Las Vegas, connecting in Los Angeles. Killian said that service is similar to JAL's Las Vegas-to-Tokyo service, which stops in Los Angeles before the transpacific leg.

Bill Mahaffey, manager of transportation for the LVCVA, said the agency was disappointed in the news since Japan is Las Vegas' No. 1 overseas market.

"We're quite unhappy over the situation," Mahaffey said. "We realize they still plan to give us one-stop service, but nonstop flights are more convenient to the tourist."

Northwest also will continue to operate code-share flights with America West Airlines. Those agreements enable different airlines to coordinate schedules, ticketing and baggage transfers easier.