WIRE REPORTS

BRIEF-Japan Airlines Corp seen adding pilots to voluntary retirement program ... Interactive Investor Interactive Investor Trading Limited, trading as "Interactive Investor", is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. ... and more » The CAC 40 pauses News Trends (blog) The group has denied being in talks with Japan Airlines to create a joint venture. The market welcomed the results of Foncière Regions (+ 5.20%), ... Japan Airlines Corporation - SWOT Analysis - Aarkstore Enterprise market ... Online PR News (press release) Aarkstore announce a new report "Japan Airlines Corporation - SWOT Analysis " through its vast collection of market reserach report. ... and more » Lorna Want and Luke Brady Lead Cast of THE FANTASTICKS Broadway World This production is generously sponsored by Japan Airlines. Carl appeared in the London production of High School MusicaI at the Hammersmith Apollo. ... Arabian Supply Chain TOP 10: Global Air Cargo Operators 2010 Arabian Supply Chain ... Emirates SkyCargo, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Japan Airlines, Continental Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines and Singapore Airlines. ... and more » Pacific Business News Airlines compete for access to Tokyo Pacific Business News Four other slots are being opened for Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways. The DOT deadline for Haneda applications was Feb. ... and more » British Airways Resolute In Face Of Industrial Unrest Gerson Lehrman Group Look at Japan Airlines. A flag-carrying stalwart of global aviation for decades, which plunged into bankruptcy in January. Yet Unite, to which our cabin ... and more » Zambia News Japanese airport to cater exclusively to budget travellers Zambia News Japan is trying to increase its budget travel reach with the opening of a new airport at Ibaraki. Ibaraki, which is Japan's 98th airport, is located about ... and more » Breaking news: Japan gets hit by a 6.6 earthquake on the eastern coast of the ... Examiner.com IF YOU GO: From Los Angeles, CA to Tokyo, Japan: Non-stop and multi-stop flights are available on Continental, Japan Airlines, and many other airlines out ... and more » GulfNews Why I won't allow unions to kill the airline GulfNews Look at Japan Airlines. A flag-carrying stalwart of global aviation for decades, which plunged into bankruptcy in January. Yet Unite, to which our cabin ... and more »

DAILY REPORTS

Mar 3 Japan Airlines considering sewing security chips into uniforms to prevent them being sold New Japan Airlines are considering sewing security chips into their stewardess uniforms because they have become so popular on the black market. The airline (JAL) have found the uniforms, which feature grey jackets or waistcoasts, skirts, hats and a red neckerchief, are so in demand in the sex industry that they can be sold for a fortune. In addition, worn uniforms are incredibly popular with fetishists. (Daily Mail) Mar 3 JAL, ANA mark doll festival with flights operated by female crew Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways celebrated the Hina Matsuri doll festival on Wednesday by running domestic flights operated mostly by female crew, including copilots and mechanics. The two airlines introduced Hina Matsuri flights last year to highlight the role of women in the airline industry. While both airlines still lack women captains, female staff checked airframes and loaded baggage onto JAL's flight from Tokyo's Haneda airport to Kumamoto and ANA's flight from Haneda to Oita. (AP) Mar 1 JAL to solicit record 2,700 applications for early retirement Japan Airlines Corp. said Monday it will solicit around 2,700 employee applications for an early retirement program as it aims to turn itself around through heavy restructuring under a state-led process. The target is the largest ever for the company's early retirement program. The staged application process will start from Friday. Japan's biggest airline, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Jan. 19, eventually plans to cut around 15,700 jobs, or about 30 percent of its group workforce, by the business year through March 2013. (AP) Feb 28 JAL gals unloading uniforms as bankruptcy begins As if the historic bankruptcy of Japan Airlines were not enough, smut peddler Shukan Asahi Geino (Mar. 4) firmly sticks tongue in cheek in deeming the increase in abundance of flight attendant uniforms hitting the market to be a further indignity. For fans fostering a uniform fetish, stewardess attire is hard to obtain, with JAL's being up near the top of the pecking order. Japan's flag carrier strictly regulates the distribution of each gal's gear, requiring return upon termination of employment, and affixes registration numbers inside. It's serious business: a special section within JAL monitors Internet auction sites for illicit sales and five years ago a contract worker was arrested for attempting to broker a sale for a uni sported by airline lounge employees. (Tokyo Reporter) Feb 27 JAL can't curb business meltdown Friday's announcement that Japan Airlines Corp. suffered a record 46.7 billion yen after-tax loss during the October-December period has cast a spotlight on the beleaguered carrier's inability to turn its business around as travelers stay away amid the ongoing economic recession. JAL's consolidated after-tax loss was significantly larger than those it recorded in the previous two quarters. It was mainly attributed to a decline in the average per-passenger revenue from international flights--the company's bread and butter--which dropped 35 percent from the same period in the previous year. The airline said lower fuel surcharges and the yen's appreciation also contributed to the greater loss. (Yomiuri) Feb 25 Fog disrupts Japan domestic flights; 26,000 affected Dense fog over Tokyo's Haneda Airport forced the country's two biggest airlines to redirect or cancel flights, affecting almost 26,000 passengers, All Nippon Airways Co. and Japan Airlines Corp. said in statements. ANA, Asia's second-largest carrier, canceled, delayed or redirected 74 flights, affecting 16,800 passengers, while JAL's flight changes affected 9,000 customers, the statements said. (Bloomberg) Feb 22 Japan Airlines to raise fuel surcharge Failed flagship carrier Japan Airlines (JAL) said Monday it planned to raise fuel surcharges for its all international flights from April 1. The Japanese airline, which went bankrupt a month ago with six billion dollars of debt, applied for the charge with the transport ministry, citing recent rises in fuel prices, the company said in a statement. JAL is going through a government-backed turnaround plan to rebuild itself under a new management team. (AFP) Feb 22 'Gratitude' spurs JAL stock splurge Even though shares in Japan Airlines were rendered worthless Saturday following the firm's delisting, an Osaka Prefecture woman snapped up 10,000 shares out of gratitude for an incident that occurred half a century ago. JAL currently is undergoing rehabilitation under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law. "JAL provided me with a large slice of happiness, and I want nothing more than to see the company get back on its feet," Taeko Matsubara said. (Yomiuri) Feb 11 Japan Inc woes mirror nation's economic malaise Japan's corporate titans once seemed unstoppable, but now Toyota is in crisis, Japan Airlines is bankrupt and a host of other companies are in trouble, adding to the nation's long economic malaise. Its top two automakers, Toyota and Honda, are both reeling from massive safety recalls and another Japanese manufacturer has admitted to faking safety data for 150,000 aircraft seats. The myriad problems have prompted observers to question just what happened to Japan's technological prowess. (AFP) Feb 8 Deregulation crucial to JAL resuscitation Deregulation of the airline industry will be crucial for getting Japan Airlines back on its feet, but the nation should be prepared to accept the ailing airline could be sold to a local rival, according to a former deputy chief of a task force appointed by the government to draw up a plan to rehabilitate the airline. In a recent interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun, Kazuhiko Toyama, who has played a key role in the attempt to revive JAL, also said the clock is against the carrier as it tries to streamline itself under the state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation of Japan. (Yomiuri) Feb 3 Toyota on the hard shoulder Japanese public debt is 200 per cent of GDP. Its economy is poised to be overtaken by China. Japan Airlines (JAL) is bankrupt. It is tempting to see Toyota's defective accelerator pedal as part of the same story of failing Japan. To do so makes several mistakes. The first is to view Toyota as synonymous with corporate Japan, which it is not. It is profit-hungry, expansive and global, qualities that make it different in almost every respect from Japanese companies in general and the complacent, dysfunctional JAL, in particular. (Times Online) Feb 1 Japan Airlines 'up in the air' (with apologies to George Clooney) Readers who are members of the JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) are probably wondering now what will happen with their bank of points. The reconstruction of JAL certainly raises this question but also highlights some even bigger challenges in air transport today. The international system of the regulation of air transport has tried to suppress a set of highly competitive processes. Market access rights are negotiated bilaterally, and routes limited mostly to carriers identified with the countries involved. Meanwhile, greater network densities and new routes based on connections between relatively small cities eat away at the position of carriers established under these rules. They are not immune from competition. Smart carriers can thrive within this system, finding new markets for growth. (East Asia Forum) Feb 1 No-logo JAL jumbo spotted A Japan Airlines jumbo painted completely white has been spotted at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, apparently in preparation for resale as part of the bankrupt airline's plan for rehabilitation. When the rehabilitation plan is approved by the court, JAL will retire all 37 jumbo jets from its fleet, replacing them with smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft. (Asahi) Jan 31 Woes at Toyota, JAL, Sony bruise Japan Inc.'s stellar reputation Toyota is the latest Japanese corporate icon making headlines for all the wrong reasons. News of the automaker's massive vehicle recalls over faulty gas pedals came just days after Japan Airlines, a once proud flag carrier, filed for bankruptcy, saddled with billions in debt. Sony has lost its lead in consumer gadgets to the likes of Apple Inc. and has suffered its own quality mishaps. Honda, Japan's No. 2 automaker, is recalling 646,000 cars worldwide because of a faulty window switch. Taken together, Japan Inc.'s stellar reputation for quality has taken a hit - just as China is about to overtake it as the world's No. 2 economy and rising South Korean companies compete ever more aggressively. (Canadian Press) Jan 27 JAL's bankruptcy busts a warped civil aviation industry On March 11, Japan's newest civil airport, Ibaraki, a Y22 billion public-funded project, will launch with just one regular service, an Asiana Airlines daily turnaround to Incheon, South Korea. No domestic carrier has been persuaded to use the new two-runway airport, 80km northeast of central Tokyo. Nor is there any immediate plan to create a direct public transport link between Ibaraki and Tokyo, although the project was approved in 1996. On current indications, however, that will not be a serious difficulty for the time being. (The Australian) Jan 24 Don't write Japan off. The giant is stirring When a car full of boy-racers overtakes an older, sputtering jalopy, onlookers give the slower vehicle barely a glance, though the racers themselves might offer it a finger-related gesture. Given that today's boy-racers happen to be China, and that their super-charged economy has defied the global recession and is about to surpass Japan as the world's second-biggest, the focus on the overtakers may be understandable. But it is regrettable. Japan merits more than a glance, and certainly not a rude gesture. (Times Online) Jan 22 JAL to cut 15,000 jobs by 2011 Japan Airlines Corp. plans to cut around 15,000 jobs by March 2011, including close to 3,000 through an early retirement program, implementing in about a year the bulk of its total workforce reductions under its rehabilitation plan, sources said Friday. The move to concentrate most of the job reductions in fiscal 2010 starting in April is apparently aimed at promptly cutting down on personnel costs at JAL, which filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday. (Japan Times) Jan 21 JAL's future far from assured Doubts persist over whether Japan Airlines will be able to bring its struggling business back on the path to prosperity, despite Tuesday's start of its management revitalization scheme led by a state-backed corporate turnaround body, according to analysts. Admittedly, the cash-strapped carrier's rehabilitation plan, put together by the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation of Japan, is drastic in trimming fat from its bloated operations, as shown by the large cut planned in the number of personnel on the payroll of its business group. (Yomiuri) Jan 18 JAL files for bankruptcy in record failure Japan Airlines Corp. filed for bankruptcy Tuesday under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law in the biggest nonfinancial corporate failure in the postwar period. The country's flagship carrier is expected to continue flying and honor tickets with government assurances for lifeline funds, while undergoing a three-year rehabilitation process that is expected to entail massive cuts in jobs and in unprofitable routes, both domestic and international. (Japan Times) Jan 17 Teetering JAL pins hopes on management guru Japan Airlines CEO Haruka Nishimatsu cut his pay, ate in the company cafeteria and even took the bus to work to help cut costs, but he couldn't stop the once-venerable carrier's financial tailspin. His anointed successor Kazuo Inamori, a respected entrepreneur and ordained Buddhist monk, is expected to oversee much more radical cutbacks at the debt-ridden airline, which is widely expected to file for bankruptcy this week. (AFP) Jan 16 Trading in JAL stocks explodes as delisting threat looms Over 1.04 billion shares of Japan Airlines (JAL) were traded on Thursday, hitting a new daily trade record amid mounting fears over the delisting of the troubled airline. JAL stocks accounted for about 32 percent of all the shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE)'s First Section that day. (Mainichi) Jan 12 Qantas alliance raises Japan Airlines bid One of the world's largest global airline alliances, oneworld, says it will offer around $2.2 billion in financial aid to the troubled Japan Airlines. The rescue package, which outlines a range of commercial benefits to Japan Airlines (JAL) over three years, includes contributions from Australia's largest airline Qantas, as well as American Airlines, British Airways and Cathay Pacific. (ABC News) Jan 11 Japan Airlines 'to cut 15,600 jobs' Japan Airlines (JAL) is expected to cut about a third of its workforce under a three-year rehabilitation plan. According to a new report on Monday, the company is also to file for bankruptcy and embark on a government-led turnaround. The news agency Kyodo News reported that 15,600 jobs would be cut along with employees' benefits and salaries. (Aljazeera) Jan 11 JAL faces showdown with retirees Japan Airlines Corp. is having a hard time getting its retirees to approve drastic cuts in pension benefits as it heads toward court-backed rehabilitation, sources close to the matter said Sunday. The ailing carrier needs two-thirds approval and the working deadline is Tuesday. (Japan Times) Jan 9 Rehab planners: Ax JAL's global routes The government and state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Corp. of Japan are considering extensively shrinking the international operations of Japan Airlines Corp. as part of the carrier's rehabilitation plan, which is likely to entail court-backed bankruptcy filing, sources said Friday. ETIC, tasked with JAL's reconstruction, is aiming to announce a bailout package later this month and will work to persuade JAL's key commercial creditor banks, which have favored an out-of-court reorganization through debt forgiveness, to heed its plan. (Japan Times) [ More... ]