JAL may resume Tokyo - Dallas route in the near future

JAL President Ueki at JL069 inaugural ceremony at LAX. Image by LAX

Japanese news site Nikkei.com interviewed with Japan Airlines (JAL) President Ueki earlier and asked him about JAL's strategy regarding its US operation after launching Los Angeles - Osaka Kansai route on March 20 2015. Ueki confirmed that JAL is studying the resumption of the Tokyo - Dallas DFW route.

JAL used to operate 3 weekly Tokyo Narita - Dallas DFW flights when it launched the route on March 15 1999, and later this was expanded into a daily operation. The route was later "temporarily" suspended after the September 11 attack in 2001 but the route never resumed.

However, with Toyota moving its US headquarter from Torrence, CA to Plano, TX in 2017 and All Nippon Airways (ANA) launching the new Tokyo Narita - Houston route in June, Ueki said they need to urgently focus on Texas, which is the second latest economy in the US after California.

Currently JAL's joint venture partner American Airlines (AA) operates 2 daily Dallas DFW - Tokyo Narita service. JAL is working closely with AA to draw up a strategy. One possible option is to transfer one of the 2 daily flights to JAL.

As Dallas DFW is AA's mega-hub, it has lots of connection possibilities. There is a high demand for connection traffic to Central and South America, as well as automotive suppliers from Mexico. JAL could also share AA's facilities at DFW to make it more cost effective. However, there is no timeline given of when the new service will start but Ueki wants it start sooner than later.