High hopes for Tokyo-Shanghai air link

Newly inaugurated air services between Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (shown here) and Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport are the second international air route from Haneda Airport, which generally has been dedicated to domestic routes.

The new service provides four round-trip flights a day, operated by Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines.

Narita is Tokyo’s international airport but is located far from central Tokyo (1 hour by the fastest train) and in a different prefecture. It opened in 1978 after riots which reached war-like proportions.
Haneda is technically called Tokyo International Airport and is located in Tokyo proper. It is the busiest airport in Japan and the fourth-busiest in the world, even though it handles very little international traffic.
Hongqiao is Shanghai’s second airport.
Pudong is Shanghai’s international airport.

Both Haneda and Hongqiao are closer to their respective city centers than the main international airports for Tokyo and Shanghai. So a link between these two airports would be great for passengers provided the timing of the flights was right. Gate to gate, a one-way trip to central Shanghai from central Tokyo using the new air route takes about four hours — about an hour less than it takes when using Narita and Shanghai’s Pudong international airports.

Trouble is Haneda has few spare arrival and departure slots.

Thus, current flight schedules on the route are not convenient enough for businesspeople on a theoretical day trip to Shanghai. Even if they depart from Haneda Airport on the day’s first flight at 9:10 a.m., they could only stay in central Shanghai for up to an hour because the last flight heading for Haneda departs at 1:30 p.m.

By contrast, the last flight from Pudong to Narita departs at 5:05 p.m., with about 14 round-trip flights a day on the route. If early-morning and late-night flights on the route become possible, it may boost demand for other international services from Haneda.