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 201 0-001 8 

< \*, < f L\ . A#> 5 It On behalf of Los Angeles World Alrports (LAWA), the owner and operator of Los 

Angeles lnternational Airport (LAX), I strongly urge the United States Department of 

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 proceeding to those U.S. markets that generate 

the greatest volume of passenger and cargo demand to and from 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 passengers andlor 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 HND to 

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, determined to 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 

Los Angeles is clearly the most important market in which 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 Los Angeles, 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 11.6 million passengers who travel between the U.S. and Japan each 

year, more than 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 opportunity for economic benefit to accrue to the U.S. economy 

by providing for nonstop service between LAX and HND, I strongly encourage you 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