The private-sector members of the government's top economic panel might propose doubling the annual number of takeoff-landing slots for international flights at Haneda airport in Tokyo from 30,000 to more than 60,000 when its new runway opens in 2010, according to sources.

The increase in daytime slots is aimed at boosting Haneda's global competitive edge amid Japanese airports' generally falling competitiveness in the face of large Asian rivals, such as in China and South Korea, the sources said.

Haneda is mainly a hub for domestic flights. The offshore 2,500-meter runway at Haneda airport, which is set to commence operations in the fall of 2010, will provide about 110,000 takeoff-landing slots on top of the current 300,000. Of those, 20,000 have already been allocated for domestic services and 30,000 for international flights; the remaining 60,000 have yet to be allocated.

A limited number of international flights linking Japan with South Korea and China use Haneda airport, which is closer to central Tokyo than Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture.

The flights are technically chartered services, mainly offered at night and in the early hours while normal international flights for Tokyo are handled by Narita.

The private-sector members will also call for opening the new slots to flights to and from rapidly growing countries, such as India, and other Southeast Asian countries.

They will also call for an end to the regulation of slots at Narita so it can increase the total at Haneda and Narita to 1 million by the mid-2010s, the sources said.

The members are also expected to call for negotiations on "open skies" aviation deals with more Asian countries, the United States and the European Union.

"Open skies" arrangements would do away with the need for state-to-state negotiations and allow airlines to choose destinations and to set flight numbers once governments have reached agreement on a bilateral basis.