Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) has until March 1 to start new services to Tokyo Haneda or risk losing the hotly contested route rights to a rival.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said in a filing that it granted Delta an additional 30-day extension to start flights beyond the previous deadline.
Delta won two of the four daily flights to Haneda Airport distributed by the Transportation Department.
Hawaiian Airlines, owned by Hawaiian Holdings Inc. (HA), which won rights for one flight, said it would be ready to take on one of Delta’s if the Atlanta-based carrier doesn’t launch on time.
*Delta Air Lines’ long history of service actually began in agriculture, when the company was founded in 1924 as the world’s first aerial crop dusting organization Huff Daland Dusters.