Japan Airlines (JAL) may receive an additional ¥100 billion ($1 billion) in credit from Japan's state-run Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), adding to an earlier agreed ¥100 billion loan.
The two figures were issued in a statement yesterday from the office of Japanese vice-Prime Minister Naoto Kan, according to Japanese media reports. The DBJ, for its part, reportedly issued a statement saying that it will consider the request.
During the last week of December, reports that Japan's Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp (ETIC) had proposed bankruptcy as an option to restructure JAL caused the carrier's shares to plummet 24% on 30 December on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. News of the DBJ's credit extension, however, resulted in JAL shares jumping over 35% today.
A JAL spokeswoman declined to comment on specific DBJ loan figures, but said the carrier "appreciates the support while we finalise our restructuring."
The ailing carrier has also requested that its 8,800 pensioners accept cuts to pension payments, after getting its 17,000 current employees to agree to pension cuts of up to 50%.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
