Delta is largely eliminating its Tokyo Narita hub in favor of non-stop flights between the US and Asia and connections over Seoul via a joint venture with Korean Air.
Towards that end Delta will be eliminating service to Guam, which it flies to via Narita, with its last flight January 8.
“We understand the early morning flight will be discontinued in October 2017, and for the afternoon flight, it will be Jan. 8, 2018 for the last flight out,” Faasuamalie said.
She said Delta executives did talk to the Guam airport about its plans to suspend service to Guam.
At some level this surprises me, Delta has a meaningful customer base in Guam and even if the flights themselves are marginal they have a co-brand credit card issued by Bank of Guam.
And with Kim Jong Un threatening Guam the military importance of the territory rises.
Meanwhile this rebounds to United’s benefit carrying passengers between Guam and the US mainland due to cabotage rules since Guam is a U.S. territory. It will become the only single-airline flying option.
Now that surprises me for a number of reasons. In the past I use to fly HNL to Guam on CO, when UA took them over they took all the nice 767 international birds off and dumped Ghetto metal on that route. So switched to DL a bit of backtracking from NRT but not too bad. At least on return you did not lose a day.
Surprising with the growing military build there isn’t subsidies there for the airlines
The good news is that Air Koryo will begin flights from North Korea to Guam. The bad news is that aircraft is an ICBM.
United with an exclusive over Guam is bad. Expect air fares to rise more and service to continue to lag. When CO (and Continental Micronesia) got merged into United, air fares doubled. HNL-GUM remains one of the most expensive non-elite hostile flights in United’s network. 8 hour flights with no meal service at over $1,200-$1,500 roundtrip.
All of which underscores the next time I fly this route it will be on miles.
@nsx – http://www.instantrimshot.com
“I just LOVE a monoply!!!” Said no one EXCEPT Oscar, his pals at Willis Tower in the C-Suite, the BoD, and of course, the trusts…oops! I mean institutional accounts…that just so happen to cross own copious amounts of stock in many of our nation’s Oligopolistic seeking airlines…
…of course, the irony that this looming complete lack of competition is taking place where the vestiges of classical colonialism remains, at a U.S. territory (Guam) where there’s a large military presence cannot be overlooked…crony capitalism at its best…
Me thinks there is something suspecious here. Perhaps illegal collusion between United and Delta because Delta could have reduced frequency instead of totally eliminating the route, especially given its established customer base in Guam.
I used to fly to Guam and Saipan for vacations when I lived in Tokyo. As I was a KLM/Northwest guy, NWA was my airline of choice. I just did a quick check and see that, according to Kayak, DL will continue a non-stop post 8 January. I randomly picked January 23, and see DL608 departing NRT at 10:10am.
https://www.kayak.com/flights/TYO-GUM/2018-01-23?fs=stops=0
Marginal Routes Do NOT survive Longterm…,,even at Delta.
Is Japanese tourism to Guam down? If so, that would explain things (and, of course, the winding down of DL’s Tokyo hub).
In the “prehistoric” era. when airlines didn’t have many partners and I was a top CO elite, I would sometimes get to Asia via Guam. It’s not paradise. If I were Japanese, I’m sure I’d vacation elsewhere.
Guam is a more affordable destination for Japanese, particularly families that can’t afford to take the kids and grandparents to Hawaii. It is also popular for shopping as you can fly down from Tokyo with an empty suitcase and buy Louis Vuitton and Gucci for a lot less money than in Japan.