The US-Japan air corridor is the busiest transpacific market from the United States, aided by the extensive cultural, economic and tourism links between the two countries. Although Japan implemented some of the strictest travel restrictions of any country during the COVID-19 pandemic, capacity between the US and Japan has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels.

According to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, four US airlines—American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines and United Airlines—account for almost 50% of total seat capacity between the US and Japan. Let’s explore the busiest routes to Japan operated by these four US carriers.

Operating Airlines

Origin

Destination

Flights (monthly)

Seats (monthly)

American, Delta, United

Los Angeles International (LAX)

Tokyo Haneda (HND)

124

33,227

United

Guam International (GUM)

Tokyo Narita International (NRT)

103

17,098

Hawaiian

Honolulu International (HNL)

Tokyo Haneda (HND)

85

21,708

United

Guam International (GUM)

Kansai International (KIX)

43

7,138

United leads the way

Guam-Tokyo is United’s busiest and the second-busiest US-Japan route

United Airlines
is the largest US airline serving Japan by a considerable distance. This month, the airline will offer over 136,000 seats each way – which is more than American, Delta and Hawaiian combined – and a total of 578 departures, or more than 18 per day.

United 737-800 departing PDX

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

United’s busiest route is between Guam (GUM) and Tokyo Narita (NRT) – over 100 return flights (with its Boeing 737-800s) are scheduled this month, amounting to over 17,000 seats each way. United’s second-busiest route is also out of Guam, with 43 departures to Osaka Kansai (KIX) scheduled this October.

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United also serves the highest number of Japanese airports at five – Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda, Osaka Kansai, Nagoya and Fukuoka – and operates a total of 17 routes between the two countries.

American Airlines Tokyo routes

Los Angeles-Tokyo Haneda is the busiest US-Japan route overall

American Airlines
operates a double-daily between Los Angeles (LAX) and Tokyo Haneda (HND) – served by its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner fleet – which offers over 14,500 seats each way. LAX-HND is the single busiest route between the US and Japan with four daily flights, with Delta and United also operating daily flights. When we factor in United’s daily service from LAX to Tokyo Narita, the Los Angeles-Tokyo corridor is the busiest city pairing by a long way.

American Airlines 787-8 Dreamliner flying

Photo: Joe Kunzler | Simple Flying

AA flies a total of four routes to both Tokyo airports. Its other three routes – New York JFK (JFK) to Tokyo Haneda and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to both Tokyo airports – operate on a daily basis and a served by a fleet mix of Boeing 787-8/9 Dreamliners and Boeing 777-200ERs.

Daily Delta routes

Six daily Tokyo flights from six US airports

Delta Air Lines
flies to Tokyo Haneda from six US airports – Atlanta (ATL), Detroit (DTW), Honolulu (HNL), Minneapolis (MSP), Los Angeles (LAX) and Seattle-Tacoma (SEA) – and all six of these routes are daily flights.

Delta Air Lines Airbus A350-900 (N508DN).

Photo: StudioPortoSabbia | Shutterstock

If we look at seat capacity, the carrier’s services from Atlanta and Detroit (flown by its Airbus A350-900s) lead the way with almost 9,500 monthly seats each way. They are closely followed by its flights from Minneapolis and Seattle, operated by the airline’s Airbus A330neo fleet.

Hawaiian’s Honolulu connections

Hawaiian flies to Tokyo, Fukuoka and Osaka Kansai

Hawaiian Airlines serves the second-highest number of Japanese airports (four) but has the lowest number of flights and seat capacity of the four US airlines serving Japan. All four of Hawaiian’s routes are out of its Honolulu (HNL) hub – its busiest is its connection with Tokyo Haneda with 54 departures this month, which also offers the second-highest seat capacity of any US-Japan route at over 15,000 monthly seats each way.

Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A330-200 (N374HA) at Haneda Airport.

Photo: Buzz_v2 | Shutterstock

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