DOT Selects American, Delta for Japan Service

The Department of Transportation said Friday that it has chosen Portland, Ore., and Dallas-Fort Worth as new gateway airports for airline service to Japan.

Delta Air Lines was chosen to fly to Tokyo from Portland, and American Airlines will use the Dallas-Fort Worth airport as its base for service to Japan. The two airlines were chosen from seven applicants.

Northwest, United and Continental are the only U.S. carriers now serving Japan.

The U.S. opportunity to choose the two new gateways resulted from a 1985 agreement with the Japanese government. It allowed the United States to choose three new routes to Japan--two for passenger and cargo service and one for small package service.

Today’s announcement was for the two passenger/cargo routes. The city and airline for the small package service are still to be chosen.

The department said it chose Delta because that carrier “presented the most sensible and viable plan for Portland and . . . its choice will introduce a third carrier into the Japan-Pacific Northwest market, which provides the least circuitous gateway to Japan for most of the country.”

American was chosen because of its “strong identity” at Dallas-Fort Worth and its ability to feed traffic through its substantial hub operation there.

President Reagan has 60 days to review the decision for foreign-policy and national-security considerations.