Delta Air Lines Inc. and AMR Corp.’s American Airlines said Sunday they have resumed their normal flight schedules in Japan after Friday’s earthquake, while United Continental Holdings Inc. said it was operating its full schedule to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport.Delta and American added that they have no plans to evacuate locally based employees.
Chicago-based United, the result of the October merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines, said Continental’s daily flight from Guam to Sendai, Japan, was canceled indefinitely because the Sendai airport is closed. Sendai is located near the epicenter of the magnitude 8.9 earthquake and was inundated by a tsunami.Continental operates a small hub in Guam. The airline is trying to send Guam-Sendai passengers to other airports in Japan.
A spokeswoman for United, the largest U.S. airline to Japan, said the combined airlines have about 1,000 employees in Japan at nine airports and in offices in downtown Tokyo, including two flight-attendant bases there. The company said it is sending additional supervisors to Narita to help, but has received no reports of injuries of its Japan-based employees. United said it has contacted all its Japan-based employees to see if they need assistance.
Travelers who are scheduled to fly to, from and through Japan on United can change their plans without penalty through March 18, the company said. Connecting flights to other destinations in the region, such as Bangkok, were operating normally Sunday, the United spokeswoman said.Atlanta-based Delta declined to comment on advance bookings and whether it had experienced cancellations after the quake. A spokeswoman for American said in an email that the airline isn’t seeing cancellations en masse.
For now, Delta and American are waiving change fees for customers whose flights have been affected. Customers booked on Delta-ticketed flights to, from or through Japanese airports for flights through March 20 can make a one-time travel change, if they reschedule by April 25.American extended a similar change-fee waiver for flights until May 18, with the option to reschedule as late as March 25.Delta said it won’t evacuate its 1,200 locally based Japan employees, the overwhelming majority of whom are Japanese nationals. The Delta employees and the crews transiting through Japan are safe and didn’t report any injuries, a spokesman for the airline said in an e-mail.American, based in Fort Worth, Texas, also hasn’t evacuated its Japan-based workers, according to the company spokeswoman.