Japan and the United States will hold their first bilateral civil aviation talks under the new Bush administration in Washington on Feb. 21-22, U.S. Department of Transportation sources said Monday.
Washington aims to reach an open skies agreement with Japan with the aim of increasing the number of flights to and from Narita airport by U.S. airlines, the sources said.
The two countries will also discuss the use of Narita's second runway, now under construction and due to open in 2002, they said.
Tokyo intends to shift some U.S. flights to the new runway without increasing the number of those flights.
The U.S. side, however, plans to ask Tokyo to increase the number of flights because the new 2,180-meter runway is not long enough to accommodate jumbo jets and other large airliners, the sources said. Narita airport currently has one 4,000 meter runway.
U.S. airlines handle more than 30 percent of all flights to and from Narita, roughly the same share held by Japanese airlines.
The countries held bilateral talks on aviation in Tokyo in November for the first time in three years.