Summary
As the battle to secure slots at Haneda Airport takes precedent, but the opening of a former air base in Ibaraki Airport gives fringe players like Skymark Airlines a great shot at expanding cheaply.
Analysis
As Japan Airlines concentrates on reorganising its business, Skymark Airlines' foray into operating at Ibaraki gives it a great chance to siphon off traffic away from the congestion of Haneda and Narita and offer a slick way back into downtown Tokyo by avoiding much of the city-wide congestion that plagues the city.
Asiana Airlines presence at Ibaraki will almost certainly spawn interest from All Nippon Airways and Korean Air, particularly as the recent US-Japan open skies deal has seen interest in only the main hubs rather than secondary airports.
Protecting secondary network infrastructure will be key to Japanese airlines fending off competition from the region – in the absence of a true Japanese low cost airline operating within the country, the worst move All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines and Skymark Airlines can make is to concentrate on cut-throat, yield eroding hub competition while ignoring the volume growth that exists between outer-metropolitan city areas.
Either way, a new Tokyo airport bodes well for consumer choice in a country that has thus far been shielded from true price competition.
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
