Japan Airlines (JAL) has revealed it will receive 20 Boeing 787-9s the larger variant of the Dreamliner, after placing an order for ten aircraft and converting an existing option for ten more. The aircraft will be introduced into its fleet from FY2015 on medium- to long-haul international routes. The deal was revealed as part of the carrier’s Mid-Term Management Plan for FY2012-2016, in which further information about its proposed operations with its initial 787-8 variants was also outlined, including new routes between Tokyo Narita and Helsinki and San Diego.
JAL has 25 787-8s on order and will become the second operator of the modern generation airliner when it receives its first aircraft later this quarter. It has already announced that it will use the type to introduce a new link between Tokyo Narita and Boston from April 22, 2012, initially on a four times weekly basis but increasing to a daily schedule from June 1, 2012.
It will also use the aircraft on flights from the Japanese capital to Delhi and Moscow, replacing larger 777-200ERs on four and three flights per week, respectively as well as on daily services between Tokyo Haneda and Beijing. From September 12, 2012 the Dreamliner will also be introduced on daily flights to Singapore Changi from both Tokyo Haneda and Tokyo Narita airports, and to add a second daily flight on the Tokyo Narita service from October 28, 2012.
The airline now confirms that San Diego will be the second US destination to be served by its Dreamliners with a four times weekly service due to commence in December 2012. This is planned to grow to a daily operation from March 2013. There are currently no direct air services between San Diego and the Japanese capital, although around 40,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year, the majority flying with United Airlines via the Western US gateways of San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The Japanese flag carrier is expected to also link into the network of its oneworld partners at San Diego International Airport, where American Airlines offers flights to Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York and British Airways offers a daily service to London Heathrow, the only transatlantic departure from the airport.
JAL’s Dreamliners will make their debut in Europe in March 2013 with the introduction of a four times weekly service between Tokyo Narita and Helsinki, a route on which the carrier will again be able to feed additional traffic through its oneworld partners, this time primarily through Finnair. The Finnish national carrier already serves the route on a daily basis using an Airbus A330-300 and on which JAL currently places its own flight code. In the past year an estimated 44,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two destinations, but like Finnair, JAL can expect to generate considerable traffic from the Nordic carrier’s regional network that encompasses over 50 destinations across Europe.
The new business plan, which covers the year up until March 31, 2017, has been developed by JAL to overcome the short- and medium-term challenges the industry is expected to offer and to take advantage of the expanded business opportunities afforded by the increase in departure and landing slots that are expected in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. It also acknowledges the imminent arrival of low-cost carriers into the domestic and international markets and the challenges currently posed by Japan's low economic growth rate, and the European sovereign debt crisis.
JAL says that through implementing the revised plan, it seeks to “establish adequate profitability and financial stability,” and to “strengthen its resilience” to economic fluctuations and risk events. It will also attempt to further leverage the strength of the JAL brand to “emphasise JAL's distinction as a high quality, full-service airline”.
Alongside its expanded 787 schedule, JAL will also make some other network changes as it focuses on what it describes as "high quality, full services" for international flights and "convenience and simplicity" for domestic flights. In the high economic growth region of Southeast Asia, JAL will strengthen its network by increasing the number of flights from Tokyo Narita to New Delhi and to Singapore Changi and enhancing the onboard offering for passengers between Tokyo and Bangkok.
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