March 15, 2010

The Honorable Ray H. LaHood Secretary of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E. Washington, DC 20590

3 ~JII~ 11



# . ,I N,.,s RE: Support Letter for Docket No. US DOT OST 2010-0018

< \*, < f L\

### .A#> 5 It On behalf of LosAngeles WorldAlrports (LAWA), the owner and operator of Los Angeles lnternational Airport 

### (LAX), Istrongly urge the United States Departmentof Transportation (USDOT)to award one slot for nonstop service between LAX and

T > r ,,t ,A,, ,, ,t L ,,, ,,,s,,,,,,cr5 Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)to Delta Air Lines. Given the role of HND as Japan's dominant domestic hub, I strongly encourage you to award route authority in the current proceedingto those U.S. 

### marketsthat generate the greatest volume of passenger and cargo demand to andfrom the nation of Japan. Current or historical levels of nonstop service tolfrom Tokyo Narita lnternational Airport (NRT) are irrelevant to the current proceeding, as NRT is an international gateway through which many passengers merely pass en route to other Asian destinations. Nonstop service to HND represents something entirely different: time-saving air service to U.S. and Japanese passengersandlor shippers of air-eligible cargo. Therefore, the allocation of limited slots at HND that will generate the greatest economic benefit to consumers in both countries is one that will connect HNDto those U.S. markets with the largest number of passengers and cargo seeking access to Tokyo itself and other Japanese destinations with timely connections via HND. If the USDOT is, in fact, determinedto maximize economic benefits to the U.S.in its award of route authority tolfrom HND, 

### I am confident that you will agree with me that LosAngeles is 

### clearlythe most important market inwhich a U.S.or Japanese carrier can offer nonstop access to HND, for several reasons. There are more residents of Japanese ancestry in Los Angeles than in any other U.S. city, including Honolulu. There are more than twice as many residents of Japanese descent in Los A~geles than in San Francisco, the U.S. mainland city with the second-highest total More Japanese expatriates live in Los Angeles than in any other U.S. city. 

### In fact, 

### 57% more live in Los Angeles than in New York City, the city with the second-largest population

### The Honorable Ray H. LaHood March 15, 2010 Page 2

are both exported and imported between the U.S.and Japan via Los Angeles is more than double that which passes through New York City, the secondmost busy international trade gateway Air cargo accounted for more than $4.4 billion of the $13.6 billion in 2008 exports to Japan that were transported from LosAngeles, the nation's largest manufacturing center Los Angeles is the mainland U.S. destination that Japanese travelers visit more than any other, with nearly 350,000 visitors spendirlg more than $1.4 billion in the local economy each year The Los Angeles region generates more origin-destination passenger traffic to and

### from Japan than any other U.S. mainland market, by a significant margin. In fact, 700,000 passengers, or more than one of every five traveling between the U.S. and Japan, originates in or is destined for Los Angeles Of the 11.6million passengers who travel between the U.S.and Japan each year, morethan 11% do so via LAX, despite the fact

### that no U.S. airline operates a major gateway to the AsiaJPacific region at the airport If the USDOT fails to award a slot to Delta for LAX-HND nonstop service, it will allow foreign flag carriers to provide nonstop service tolfrom one more major Asian market to Los Angeles without competition from a single U.S.carrier Given the unmatched opportunityfor economic benefit to accrue to the U.S. economy by providing for nonstop service between 

### LAX and HND, I strongly encourageyou to award at least one slot to Delta, because LAX-HND is both the strongest market proposed by Delta, as well as the strongest option from the U.S. mainland.

ina Marie Lindsey xecutive Director

Enclosures