Cuts In International Routes Announced With Loss

Japan Airline Corporation says it has lost a billion dollars in the 2nd quarter of 2009, and will slash international routes as a result. 

The New York Times reports JAL is making "drastic reductions" in its fleet and network as demand for air travel contracts. It will reduce flights on 8 international routes, and cut two others entirely by late October.  Other plans call for re-deploying smaller aircraft on some international routes in an effort to make them profitable.  The airline's revenue fell 32 percent, to 334.8 billion yen compared to the same period last year.

JAL joins major carriers around the world in slashing routes, shuffling equipment, and in many cases shedding jobs. Business conditions were “starkly harsher” than a year ago, the airline said in a statement, in part because of the flu outbreak in the spring, which hit leisure travel hard. Oil prices and sharp reductions in the cargo market have also have played pivotal roles.

The airline plans to cut the number of flights between Narita airport of Tokyo and Guangzhou, in southern China, to seven, half the previous number.  Flights between Haneda airport of Tokyo and Hong Kong will be cut from seven to 3 a week, as will flights from Narita to Delhi. The airline will also reduce flights from Osaka to Shanghai and Seoul.

Services between Nagoya and Paris, and Nagoya and Seoul will be dropped.  There are currently seven JAL weekly flights on those routes.

FMI: www.jal.com