ANA to Operate Service to Denver from 2012

Well, its finally official. The long rumored service between Tokyo and Denver will come in 2012, on the Boeing 787-8 aircraft. This service has been bounced around for a long time, and the city of Denver even sent a delegation to Tokyo last year(including Governor Bill Ritter) to discuss this flight and other economic ties.

found at http://www.visitingdc.com/images/denver-airport-address.jpg

People may question the validity of the flight, but given that Denver and Tokyo are both huge Star Alliance hubs, the route will probably work. The bloodbath that exists on short-haul flights at Denver is magically cleared when considering international flights. There are currently no nonstop flights between Denver and Asia. With onward connections on ANA, the route should have more than enough passengers to work. I'd estimate Denver-Asia O&D at 100-150 passengers daily each way. With connections from the US through Denver on United, the route could achieve consistent 70-90% load-factors.

There are, however a few potential pitfalls for this route. First, United and ANA do not offer System-wide upgrades, meaning that potential Premium traffic might not be fully realized. A system wide upgrade means that frequent flyers on United and ANA can reciprocally upgrade to a higher class of service on the flight. Also, Delta currently operates a seasonal route to Tokyo from its western hub in Salt Lake City. The routes could compete for the same connecting passengers from the Rocky Mountains region, but Denver is a much larger O&D market to Asia.

found at www.tokyotopia.com/flights-to-tokyo.html

Denver is an airport that consistently ranks near the top in quality for connecting passengers. It is far more convenient to connect over DEN, than it is Los Angeles or San Francisco. If United and ANA operate this route under the umbrella of a joint venture, it is sure to succeed.