Japan Airlines (JAL) today released details about the international and domestic routes it will suspend.
On 7 December it will suspend indefinitely its Osaka Kansai-Hangzhou, Tokyo Narita-Hangzhou, Tokyo Narita-Qingdao and Tokyo Narita-Xiamen services, says JAL. It will also close its Hangzhou, Qingdao and Xiamen offices.
On 12 January it will suspend indefinitely its Osaka Kansai-Busan and Osaka Kansai-Hanoi, and on 17 January it will suspend indefinitely its Singapore-Kuala Lumpur services. On 18 January it will suspend indefinitely its Vancouver-Mexico City services, and the Mexico City office will also close, it adds.
These cutbacks are to passenger services, but the dedicated freighter service from Tokyo Narita to Qingdao will be suspended indefinitely starting 7 December.
In terms of capacity reduction, the airline says it is switching to smaller aircraft on some routes and that the frequency of its Tokyo Narita-London Heathrow service is halving to seven flights per week from 14 with effect from 7 December.
On 7 December it will also reduce its Tokyo Narita-Taipei service to 21 flights per week from 28.
The carrier will in addition suspend service on eight domestic routes.
The cuts will be made in the February-June period and will be to the Nagoya-Kumamoto, Tokyo Narita-Kobe, Nagoya-Iwate Hanamaki, Nagoya-Kushiro, Kiakyushu-Okinawa, Kobe-Sapporo, Kobe-Okinawa and Kobe-Ishigaki routes.
JAL has been losing money and is in talks with the government for a bail-out.
"With a focus on improving profitability and reducing costs, a bold review of under-performing routes was conducted," it says.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
