JAL to cut 45 more overseas, domestic routes in turnaround efforts+

TOKYO, April 28 Kyodo - Japan Airlines Corp., now undergoing a state-backed rehabilitation process, said Wednesday it will cut 45 more international and domestic routes from late September through March next year as part of its efforts to swiftly restore the
carrier to profitability.

As the airline works out details of rehabilitation measures including the route
cuts, the government-backed turnaround body said JAL's submission of its plan
to the Tokyo District Court may be delayed from its initial target of late
June.
Hideo Seto, trustee of the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan
which is overseeing the airline's rehabilitation, said in a news conference
that there is a ''likelihood that (the submission) will be slightly delayed''
to enable JAL to come up with a ''firm'' and ''effective'' turnaround plan.
According to JAL, the flight services to be terminated are 15 international
routes and 30 domestic routes.
Cuts and reduction of routes form the key pillars of the turnaround plan. When
JAL filed for bankruptcy protection on Jan. 19, it said it would scrap a total
of 31 unprofitable domestic and international routes.
Creditor banks, however, have been pressing JAL to make further job and flight
cuts for enhanced streamlining of operations.
JAL President Masaru Onishi noted the key role of the existing routes in social
infrastructure, but said the new flight cuts are ''necessary to ensure (JAL's)
long-term rehabilitation.''
Under its new plan on route cuts, JAL will end its services connecting Narita
airport near Tokyo with Sao Paulo, Amsterdam and Milan from Sept. 30. It will
also stop flying to Kona, Hawaii, from Oct. 30.
The new plan also entails strengthening flights to Tokyo's Haneda airport, with
new routes linking it to Taipei's Songshan, San Francisco, Honolulu, Bangkok
and Paris. The Narita-San Francisco route will be cancelled.
The other international routes subject to cuts are flights linking Narita with
Rome, Brisbane in Australia and Denpasar in Indonesia's Bali, those linking
Kansai International Airport in Osaka with Denpasar, Guam, Hong Kong, China's
Guangzhou and Beijing, and those linking Central Japan International Airport in
Aichi Prefecture with Bangkok and Guangzhou.
Domestic routes subject to cuts include flights between Nagoya airport and nine
cities.
Subsequently, JAL said it will cut its international capacity by 40 percent and
domestic capacity by 30 percent for this fiscal year compared with fiscal 2008
levels.
Even as Japan's former flag carrier slashes routes, JAL Chairman Kazuo Inamori
reiterated that international services remain important to JAL's turnaround
efforts.
JAL said it will retire the Boeing 747-400 and Airbus 300-600 aircraft within a
year, a change from its initial plan unveiled in January to do so over three
years.
Job cuts also remain central to the carrier's rehabilitation.
According to the carrier, about 3,610 employees filed for an early voluntary
retirement program from March 5 to April 16. The figure surpassed the company's
target of 2,700 people.
==Kyodo