Japan Air System (JAS) and Japan Airlines (JAL) are planning to incorporate new low-cost subsidiary carriers shortly, in the face of growing domestic liberalisation and the entry of new competing start-up airlines.
JAS also announced that its new subsidiary operation, Harlequin Air, was to have been established on 20 January. The airline will have a capitalisation of ´480 million ($4.15 million) and begin international charter operations in December, followed by scheduled domestic services in January 1997.
Harlequin will initially be equipped with a single McDonnell Douglas (MDC) DC-10-30 and operate up to 100 charter flights a year between 38 secondary airports in Japan and South-East Asia and Australia. Tourist destinations will include Bangkok, Brisbane, Manila, Singapore and Sydney.
The domestic operation will use MDC MD-81s leased from JAS to operate 15 daily flights from Fukuoka, in southern Japan, to six or seven secondary cities, including Kagoshima, Matsuyama, Miyazaki and Sapporo. The airline hopes to cut costs by 10-15% by supplementing JAS crew with locally recruited attendants from Fukuoka and foreign pilots.
JAL, in the meantime, plans to incorporate its own domestic subsidiary carrier in March. The yet-to-be named airline will have a capitalisation of ´400 million and begin operating in the spring of 1998, equipped initially with three Boeing 737s.
The airline's fleet could grow to 15-20 aircraft by 2005-10 and include widebody Boeing 767s, says JAL. Maintenance will be performed by JAL and its 51%-owned Okinawa-based subsidiary, Japan Transocean Airlines. It will operate on JAL's low-demand regional routes on a wet-lease basis, as well as develop its own network. Actual routes will depend on future air fares and the allocation of new slots at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.
Like Harlequin, JALplans to employ lower-cost contract cabin crew and foreign pilots to achieve savings of up to 20%. "We have to learn how to deal with domestic deregulation, increased competition and lower prices and more benefits to the consumer," notes JAL president Akira Kondo.
Source: Flight International
