Landing Rights Rift Delays New United Flight to Japan

CHICAGO — United Airlines was denied permission to fly a new route from Chicago to Tokyo on Tuesday, hours before a gala news conference to inaugurate the service, as Japan stepped up a tit-for-tat fight over landing rights.

United did not let the decision disrupt the highly publicized news conference to launch the route, and Stephen M. Wolf, chairman of United parent UAL Corp., predicted that the dispute would be ironed out within a few days.

Japan said it would allow United to honor its advance bookings and fly the route temporarily, and the inaugural flight was allowed to take off.

United’s request got tangled in a dispute involving United Parcel Service. UPS, the Greenwich, Conn.-based package and postal delivery company, complained that late-morning slots it was given at Tokyo’s airport made it impossible to make next-day deliveries in the United States. The Transportation Department, aiming to pressure the Japanese government, decided to withhold permission for Japan Air Lines and Nippon Cargo Airlines to land at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.