JAL launching service between Tokyo and LV

TOKYO -- Gov. Bob Miller has lived in Nevada most of his life, but it took a trip to Japan for him to feel he had hit the jackpot.

Japan Airlines, the top international air carrier for the nation that is the leading overseas market for Las Vegas, announced today the company will begin twice-a-week nonstop service to McCarran International Airport in October.

The announcement was hailed by Miller and his 10-member delegation traveling in Tokyo as one of Southern Nevada's most significant advances for tourism.

While Minneapolis-based Northwest Airlines already offers twice-a-week nonstop service between Las Vegas and Tokyo, the new flights are significant in that JAL is the first Asian carrier to venture into the Southern Nevada market with regular service. Many Japanese tourists have a greater comfort level flying with a company from their own nation.

JAL will fly a Boeing 747 jumbo jet with a capacity of 397 passengers to McCarran on Tuesdays and Fridays -- a schedule that won't go head-to-head with Northwest.

The turnaround flight, also operating Tuesdays and Fridays, will be routed through Los Angeles, giving the airline the ability to pick up additional West Coast passengers for the trans-Pacific flight.

The airline's Flight 26 will leave Tokyo's Narita International Airport at 1:50 p.m. in Tokyo and arrive after a nearly 10-hour flight in Las Vegas at 7:40 a.m. the same day. The return trip, Flight 25, will leave Las Vegas at 9:10 a.m., arrive at Los Angeles International Airport at 10:15, then leave at 12:10 p.m., reaching Tokyo 11 hours later at 3:25 p.m. the following day.

The first flight is scheduled to arrive in Las Vegas on Oct. 2.

Las Vegas is JAL's first new U.S. destination in two years and the airline's sixth gateway in the continental United States. The airline already serves Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Atlanta.

Miller thanked JAL's leadership for thinking highly enough of Las Vegas to offer the new service and wished the company success "in filling all your planes for the rest of our lifetimes."

"It's a really historic day for Nevada and Las Vegas," Las Vegas Councilman Arnie Adamsen said. He is a member of the contingent that traveled to Japan in support of Miller's efforts to secure additional air service to Southern Nevada. "By adding Las Vegas as a new destination, Japan Airlines will help visitors realize that we're not just a gambling town anymore."

Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said that while the announcement involves service to Las Vegas, the significance of the new flights will be felt statewide.

"Obviously, this is focused on the Las Vegas airport because that's the environment that makes the deal," Raggio said. "But this is significant for the whole state. I was pleased to hear the interest they expressed in Northern Nevada and Lake Tahoe. I think this is something good for the whole state."

The announcement, anticipated for weeks by Southern Nevada aviation officials, came from JAL President Akira Kondo in a meeting between a host of the airline's executives and the Nevada contingent at the Imperial Hotel, a few blocks from Tokyo's historic Imperial Palace, home to Japan's royal family.

At that meeting, Miller made the same incentive offer he made Monday to representatives of All Nippon Airlines -- that JAL's top customers will be able to use a new airport club lounge at Terminal 2 at McCarran for one year and that $250,000 will be spent to market direct service between Tokyo and Las Vegas.

Kondo and Miller then took the lead in announcing the new service at a news conference attended by about 50 writers and photographers.

"In line with the recently concluded agreement at the Japan-U.S. bilateral air talks which ensured more liberalization, it is JAL's intention to make use of the rights accorded to us in our business plan to meet the challenge of the competition that we now are faced with," Kondo said through an interpreter. "For example, in February this year, JAL announced a marketing alliance with American Airlines for a code-sharing arrangement. Today, we are taking one further step to seize this opportunity of a liberalized access to the U.S. interior destinations by expanding our network with the inauguration of the new services into Las Vegas."

Miller, whose remarks were translated to Japanese, praised Kondo for his knowledge of the Las Vegas market.

"Las Vegas is known around the world as a place where travelers receive first-class value for their tourist dollar," Miller said. "The announcement made by JAL executives here today makes it an even better value. No longer will visitors from Japan have to travel through a gateway city before arriving in Las Vegas."

Geoffrey Tudor, a representative for JAL, said the company believes it can maintain a load factor of 70 percent on flights to and from Las Vegas. If planes are full, he said, JAL would consider more frequent flights. The company, however, would probably have to eliminate service elsewhere to do that since landing slots at Narita are completely booked.

Estimates vary on the economic impact the JAL flights will have on Las Vegas, since it's almost impossible to determine how many travelers would have instead flown to the West Coast and made other connections or taken a bus from Los Angeles to get to Southern Nevada. Some experts say the nongaming economic impact of the flight would be from $5 million to $7 million.

Although the tone of the announcement was generally upbeat, the storm cloud of Japan's shaky economy remains on the horizon. The decreasing value of the yen against the U.S. dollar continued to be front-page news in Tokyo's English-language newspapers today.

The yen sank to 141.25 against the U.S. dollar on worldwide currency exchanges, the lowest level in seven years. Kondo was asked at the news conference whether the announcement of the flight was a wise idea in light of the foundering Japanese economy.

He responded that he believes demand for travel to Las Vegas will be strong despite the upheaval. Miller added that the number of Japanese visitors increased from 311,000 in 1996 to 403,000 in 1997, a time frame partially included in the current recession. Miller also said Las Vegas' food, hotel and entertainment rates are among the lowest in the world, giving the visitors to the city good value.

For the governor's contingent, today was a nonstop high from start to finish, and a light rain in Tokyo did little to dampen the group's spirits.

The day began with the Nevadans playing host to 12 airline executives at their hotel headquarters. Representatives from JAL, All Nippon and U.S. carriers Northwest, United, Delta and American heard Miller's appeal for additional service. Miller pushed the fact that five new resorts representing 20,000 new rooms would be on line within three years.

JAL at that point hadn't made its announcement, but All Nippon had disclosed on Monday that it is planning two charter flights between Nagoya and Las Vegas in the summer.

American has a growing alliance with JAL, and All Nippon has a similar agreement with United. All Nippon's shortage of aircraft and landing slots has led to speculation it would establish a "wet lease" agreement with United, painting ANA colors on a United plane and using a United crew for future flights.

Delta appears to be focusing its attention on the Korean market and has developed an alliance with Korean Airlines.

Three of the U.S. carriers are taking advantage of the liberalized bilateral air agreement between Japan and the United States by inaugurating some new service, mostly through established hub airports. United is beefing up its Tokyo service to Chicago while Delta is inaugurating nonstop service to Atlanta.

Following the meeting with the various carriers, the contingent attended JAL's meeting and news conference. Following that, JAL had a reception to celebrate the announcement of the new service, attended by more than 200 airline executives and employees. As videos of Las Vegas' attractions and its implosions filled monitors throughout the hall, Western models dressed in conservative showgirl attire served drinks and hors d'oeuvres.

Following that reception, Miller led his group to a small Japanese restaurant where they were greeted by about 18 upper-level JAL executives and Japanese government officials. Two leaders speculated as being the front-runners to replace retiring Prime Minister Hashimoto -- Yohei Kono, the former president of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, and Keizo Obuchi, minister of foreign affairs -- were among the guests.

When the last event was over, members of the contingent who have played a continuous role in developing plans and implementing Asian service for more than five years reflected on the significance of the day.

While some concurred that there was still some work ahead, all of them reveled in the JAL announcement.

"With all the work that has gone into it," Nevada Commission on Tourism Executive Director Tom Tait said, "this makes it all worthwhile."

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