JAL, once the world’s largest carrier, is set to emerge from bankruptcy administration this week as a smaller airline more reliant on Asian routes and partnerships.
JAL has cut 49 routes, including Sao Paulo, Amsterdam and Milan, and has grounded the last remnants of what was the world’s largest 747 fleet as it cut 103 planes. The Tokyo-based airline has also shed about a third of its workforce since entering court administration in January 2010 following three losses in four years.
The carrier has offset fleet cuts by boosting cooperation with partners in the Oneworld grouping, including a venture with American Airlines that is due to start on April 1 and increased codesharing with Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific.
JAL’s exit from court administration coincides with a 60% fall in passenger numbers arriving in Japan as firms and individuals await more news on the nuclear reactor failure following the earthquake of March 11.
JAL was delisted from the Tokyo stock exchange in February, 2010, wiping out shareholders in a company that was worth more than $6 billion less than a year earlier. As part of its turnaround, the carrier has revived the crane livery it used in the mid-1980s, when it was the world’s largest airline for international traffic. Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan, the state- backed fund that has led JAL’s 872 billion yen ($11 billion) turnaround, will continue to oversee the carrier once it leaves court protection. The fund, which can work with JAL until January 2013 under its own regulations, has pledged to invest 350 billion yen in the airline. It eventually aims to sell shares in the airline.