JAL will increase Tokyo Narita - New York service to 2 daily from March 30 2014

Japan Airlines (JAL) has just announced the plan to increase frequency on the Tokyo Narita (NRT) - New York JFK (JFK) route to 2 daily from March 30 2014. The newly added flight will be operated with a Boeing 787-8 (788) with Business Class and Economy Class service only.

The flight is strategically timed to improve connectivities on both ends as it will depart Narita in the evening to allow passengers from other parts of Asia to connect to this flight and the early arrival at Narita also means more connection possibilities. On the New York end, connectivity to and from South America where demand is robustly growing will be greatly improved as well. Below is the proposed schedule.

JL004 NRT 19:45 - JFK 20:00
JL003 JFK 09:30 - NRT 12:40+1

This new 2nd daily service makes sense given American Airlines (AA) has pulled its New York - Tokyo Haneda service without restarting the daily flight to Narita. Now the question is when JAL will retrofit the 788 into SKY SUITE 787 (SS8?) and install some good seats on it. Hopefully soon. And I wonder if JAL will bring back a 2nd daily Los Angeles (LAX) service or the Los Angeles - Osaka Kansai (KIX) service with the 788 next :)

For more details, you can refer to JAL Press Release (Japanese, English)