American Airlines is renewing its push for additional routes to Tokyo's Haneda Airport, one of the world's busiest travel hubs.

The Fort Worth-based carrier said Thursday that it will apply to the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin Haneda routes from Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Its new application is a result of the U.S. and Japan reaching a tentative agreement last month to expand access at Haneda, opening up to 12 additional daytime slot pairs for U.S. airlines.

"Tokyo is an important hub for our Pacific joint business with Japan Airlines," American President Robert Isom said in a statement. "Enhanced service at Haneda would give our customers better access to downtown Tokyo and open up JAL's domestic network with flights to destinations like Osaka, Sapporo and Fukuoka."

American now operates one daily flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Haneda, a route that dates back to 2016. Haneda is about an hour closer to downtown Tokyo than Narita Airport, where American also has daily service.

In 2016, American lost a bid to launch a DFW-to-Haneda route when the government awarded an open daytime slot to Delta and Minneapolis-St. Paul. That slot had been up for grabs after routes were awarded to Delta and American from Los Angeles, United from San Francisco and Hawaiian from Honolulu.

Haneda is preferred by business travelers, and that's especially important in North Texas because of the growing presence of Japanese companies and investment.

But there promises to be intense competition among U.S. carriers for the new slots. United and Delta also announced plans Wednesday to compete for the routes.

United Airlines said it will seek six daily nonstop flights to Haneda, originating from Newark Liberty, Chicago O'Hare, Washington Dulles, LAX, Houston George Bush Intercontinental and Guam's A.B. Won Pat International airports.

It described those six cities as the U.S. hubs with the most consumer demand among the 3 million annual bookings to Tokyo. Japan's largest city will likely see an influx of tourists next year when it hosts the 2020 Olympics.

"Tokyo is a hub of 21st century global commerce and innovation and one of the world's most popular tourist destinations," said United Airlines President Scott Kirby.

United's proposed flights from Newark, Los Angeles and Guam would be in addition to its existing service to Narita from those cities. The Chicago-based airline wants to shift its existing nonstop flights from Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Houston from Narita to Haneda.

Delta wants to launch daily service to Haneda from Seattle, Detroit, Atlanta and Portland, Ore., as well as twice-daily flights from Honolulu.

The Atlanta-based carrier said its existing routes to Haneda from Minneapolis-St. Paul and LAX are delivering "substantial consumer benefits" by carrying 800,000 passengers since starting daytime flights.