Denver-Tokyo Service Announcement

RumorNew Service #1: DEN-NRT to be announced today (http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2012/05/22/united-airlines-to-launch-denver-tokyo.html)
Flight has been loaded (http://airlineroute.net/2012/05/22/ua-dennrt-s13/) starting March 31, 2013.

UA123 DEN1155 – 1500+1NRT 788 D 31MAR13-

UA122 NRT1640 – 1230DEN 788 D 01APR13-

Report (not really a rumor) #2: DIA to lower its fees for United, in exchange for increases in available seat miles (http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2012/05/21/denver-council-oks-united-airlines.html)

Report #3: DEN-ANC goes year round, adds DEN-GFK, DEN-SHV (http://ir.unitedcontinentalholdings...3680&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1700324&highlight=)

This would be a welcome addition to the route network but from what I have heard on another forum (not TOBB) is that SEA-NRT is not for the world much longer on UA metal since we're discussing rumors.

I guess NRT is coming back to life

UA needs to increase their capacity and revenue in the Japan market considering that Delta has a stronger presence out of Narita.

Wonder if this means that 875/876 is turning into a DEN-NRT non-stop and skipping SEA. I doubt DEN has sufficient O/D traffic to make this flight profitable, however, and flow traffic already has ORD, SEA, SFO, LAX, even IAH as connecting options

It is always nice to see new international service being added, but I hope the SEA-NRT route stays as well, which is logistically and competitively well positioned. I wonder if there will be any good special fare offers on the new route.

If the rumors are true, this would be a great addition for us Colorado-based *A loyalists. And when flying on revenue tix, having E+ is an asset (compared to ANA and JAL, other carriers that were supposedly being wooed by DEN).

Just curious as to 787 config--current online seating chart at ual.com shows no E+ for DEN-NRT Flight # 123 31MAR2013

http://airlineroute.net/2012/05/22/ua-dennrt-s13/

saw that but ual.com's seating chart does not show correct config then--shows all one class Y section.

I imagine it's fairly safe to assume that the 787 seat map is not complete at this point and that there is little chance of UA flying that bird without E+.

Since it's a new aircraft type, it'll probably take a little time to get the correct seat map loaded on united.com.

There is definitely E+ on the plane. The seat map for the UA 787 looks roughly like this:

nice to have an TPAC nonstop on UA from DEN

I suspect we'll also see a IAH-DEN 787 route to position the aircraft and crew, since I don't think NRT will have any other UA 787 service by March and the only pilot base for the aircraft is IAH.

With those flight times they are going to have to position the aircraft in and out of DEN to make the trips. Look for IAH-DEN to show up a a 788 route in the same timeframe in the near future.

Will they have enough 787s by end-of-March to operate daily?

Upon further review, it looks like this route could dovetail nicely with IAH-LOS:

UA122 NRT 1640 - 1230 DEN
UA1650 DEN 1430 - 1749 IAH
UA142 IAH 1905 - 1305+1 LOS
UA143 LOS 2250 - 0525+1 IAH
UA1126 IAH 0845 - 1024 DEN
UA123 DEN 1155 - 1500+1 NRT

I know UA wants to get a 787 on the LOS route as soon as possible.

They sure seem to think so.

If it is just IAH-AKL and DEN-NRT I think they can do it with three frames. That said, the original published schedule of IAH-AKL would require some additional downtime in the aircraft as the plane arriving in from AKL wouldn't be able to get to DEN then NRT same day.

Most recent guidance suggested that they expect to have five by EoY 2012 so that should be plenty to do it. Assuming they are actually delivered.

Makes more sense than AKL. That's three frames to run the two routes, I believe.

Indeed. I am fairly sure they considered that

And maybe even more by March? In any case, I think I'm going to be looking for a trip to Texas in April (and back to SFO via DEN).

I heard from a pilot recently they are now only expecting to get two aircraft in 2012. Doesn't mean they won't have five by March.

Hope the DEN GAs and CSRs are learning how to say "I'm sorry" and "Your upgrade didn't go through because we sold it to a non-status flier" in Japanese.

I think you're correct. It's something like 68 block-hours for that routing, including turn time. They could modify the IAH-AKL-IAH timing to allow for an aircraft swap at IAH, but that would limit connectivity on both ends which will ultimately be the lifeblood of that route. More realistically, with 6 frames, they could have a daily NRT-DEN-IAH-LOS-IAH-DEN-NRT and IAH-AKL return, with a spare at IAH doing domestic turns as a sub for both. Once more ships enter the fleet, there will be greater flexibility to flow aircraft through the system more effectively.

I don't see too many TODs on longhaul though.
I wonder how much O/D traffic there is on this route.
I don't see too amny Japanese in DEN.
(Similar to how YVR replaced a bunch of Japanese signs and put big Chinese ones in their place)

NRT is really to meet with NH to get Asia coverage, IMO.