Japan Airlines

(), or JAL, is the largest airline operator in Asia.

Two companies operate under the main JAL brand: and . JAL Domestic has primary responsibility for JAL's large network of intra-Japan flights, while JAL International operates both international and trunk domestic flights. JAL Corporation also owns seven smaller airlines which feed or supplement mainline JAL flights:

Among other distinctions, JAL has the largest fleet of Boeing 747s in the world (approximately 76, at March 2005). It is one of only two Asian airlines to fly to Latin America (Malaysia Airlines route to Buenos Aires, JAL routes to Mexico City and São Paulo).

The airline has signed a memorandum of understanding with the oneworld alliance, and is expected to join in 2007. American Airlines will be supporting JAL as its prime oneworld sponsor, assisted by Cathay Pacific.

History

Regulated era

Japan Air Lines Co., Ltd. was established in August 1951, with the government of Japan recognizing the need for a reliable air transportation system to help Japan grow in the aftermath of World War II. On October 25, using three Northwest Airlines Martin 2-0-2 aircraft, and Northwest crews, Japan Air Lines began serving several domestic cities from Tokyo. ^*

On August 1, 1953, the Diet of Japan passed the , forming a new state-owned Japan Air Lines, which assumed all assets and liabilities of its private predecessor on October 1. Its first aircraft, a DC-3 named "Kinsei", was leased from Philippine Airlines. Japan Airlines, in addition to the 2-0-2's, used DC-3, DC-4, DC-6 and DC-7 during the 1950s.

On February 2, 1954, Japan Airlines began its first international service, flying from Tokyo to San Francisco. This flight, operating on a DC-6B, made two stops before arriving in San Francisco, one at Wake Island and one in Honolulu. A one-way ticket for the twice-weekly flight cost $650. To this day, San Francisco to Tokyo is Japan Airlines flight number 001.

In 1960, Japan Airlines bought their first jet, a DC-8. Soon after, they decided to re-equip their airline, using jet airplanes only. That decade, many new international destinations were established.

Under the , the so-called "aviation constitution" enacted by the Japanese government in 1972, JAL was granted flag carrier status to operate international routes, and was also designated to operate domestic trunk routes in competition with All Nippon Airways. During this era, JAL bought the Boeing 747, the Boeing 727 and the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 to accommodate their growing list of routes within Japan and to countries around the world. In the 1980s Japan Airlines performed special flights for the Crown Prince of Japan and the Princess, Pope John Paul II, and various Japanese prime ministers. During that decade they also began to be more promotionally aware, with plane models and other promotional items being produced in quantity. It also bought new Boeing 767 jets and retired the DC-8's and 727's.

Deregulated era

Japan began mulling airline deregulation in the late 1970s, and the government announced the abandoning of the 45/47 system in 1985. In 1987, Japan Airlines was completely privatised, and the other two airlines in Japan, All Nippon Airways and Japan Air System, were permitted to freely compete with JAL on domestic and international routes.

Japan Airlines began the 1990s with flights to help evacuate Japanese citizens from Iraq before the start of the Gulf War. In 1992, Japan Air Charters was established, and in 1997, an agreement with The Walt Disney Company was announced, making Japan Airlines the official airline of Disney Tokyo. That year also, JALExpress had been established, with Boeing 737 aircraft. Also in 1997, the airline had to fly the Japanese prime minister to Peru to help negotiate in the Tupac Amaru kidnapping case. Japan Airlines acquired Boeing 777's during that decade.

In 2001, Japan Air System and Japan Airlines agreed to merge. On October 2, 2002, they established a new holding company called , forming a new core of the JAL Group. Airplane liveries were changed to match the design of the new JAL Group. At that time, the merged group of airlines was the sixth largest in the world by passengers carried, and the third largest measured by revenue.

On April 1, 2004, JAL changed its name to Japan Airlines International, and JAS changed its name to Japan Airlines Domestic. JAS flight codes were changed to JAL flight codes, JAS check-in desks were refitted in JAL livery, and JAS aircraft were gradually repainted. On June 26, 2004, the parent company Japan Airlines System was renamed to Japan Airlines Corporation.

JAL applied to join the airline alliance oneworld on October 25, 2005. JAL is currently codesharing with several members of oneworld, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, and Qantas. Also, oneworld's LAN is one of the partners of JAL's frequent flyer programme, JAL Mileage Bank.

JALUX Inc., established 1962, is JAL's catering company which also does a variety of work for the company including the "De sky" line of snack foods, supplying JAL's 'Blue Sky' restaurants and 'JAL-DFS' shops, Aircraft fuel components, cabin services and In-flight duty-free. JALUX merged with JAS Trading on January 2004 to unify support operations for the JAL group.

Japan Airlines is one of the most widely known companies by model aeroplane collectors, their planes being produced in mass quantities by Schabak, Wooster, Herpa, Flight Miniatures, Long Prosper and Dragon Wings.

Incidents and accidents

In 1952, a Martin 2-0-2 of Japan Air Lines crashed, killing all 37 on board.

On August 12, 1985, Flight 123, a 747 bound for Osaka International Airport, Itami/Toyonaka, suffered a crippling decompression shortly after takeoff from Tokyo International Airport, Ota, Tokyo, lost all its hydraulic systems and, after attempting to limp back to Tokyo, crashed into a mountain ; it was the worst single-aircraft disaster in history (and the second-worst air disaster in history); 520 out of 524 people on board died (excludes an unborn baby who died). Rescuers indicated that fewer people would have died had rescuers gone straight to the crash site instead of waiting until the following morning.

On 22 January 2005 a Japan Airlines Boeing 777-200 aircraft (with 211 people on board) at Sapporo airport, Japan, began its take-off run without being cleared to do so and was told by air traffic control to abort, which it did. The fault was compounded by the failure of the captain to report the event, for which the airline was reprimanded by the ministry of land, infrastructure and transport (ref: Flight International, July 2005).

On August 12, 2005 metal fragments fell in a Fukuoka residential area from a JALways' DC-10 bound for Honolulu after an engine briefly caught fire, underlining JAL's recent poor safety record. A boy and a man were injured by fragments. The incident also happened exactly 20 years after Japan Airlines Flight 123. The plane was forced to return to Fukuoka Airport and land there. The sight of flames coming from the engine was captured by a NHK film crew which happened to be recording because the service to Hawaii is soon to be withdrawn as it is unprofitable. ^*

Destinations

Onboard Entertainment

JAL and JAA are known for their onboard entertainment system called MAGIC. The system is updated by JAL Entertainment Network (JEN) and features credit card phone, multiple movies, destination guides with immigration card filling instructions, active airplane stats, games and more. There are three generations of the MAGIC system: MAGIC-I, MAGIC-II, and MAGIC-III. The latest MAGIC-III system which is installed in Boeing 767 and Boeing 777 aircraft (also available on select Boeing 747-400 aircraft), provides Audio/Video On Demand (AVOD) entertainment to the passengers. Recently, MAGIC systems have had the duty-free shopping catalogue added, including flight crew recommendations and a video of specials available on your flight. Aircraft with MAGIC-I and MAGIC-II have movies that automatically start once the AVOD system is turned on once the aircraft reaches cruise level. Passengers can tune in at any time of the movie. All movies restart upon completion. When the aircraft is in the pushback, taxi, takeoff, ascent, descent, stacking, landing, taxi, and docking phases of flight, all TV's in the cabin automatically tune into the video camera outside the airplane to provide "Pilot Vision" to the passengers. This feature is common on many Japanese airlines.

In June 2006, JAL announced a promotion featuring the Nintendo DS Lite. Between June 1 and August 31, all Executive and First Class passengers would be offered use of Nintendo DS Lites specially manufactured for air travel (the wireless capabilities of these units were removed in order to conform with airline safety standards).^*

The JAL Group have their own inflight magazine called Skyward reflecting on the company motto. Before merger with JAS ( The current JAL Domestic), JAL's inflight magazine was called Winds. All of the JAL Group magazines are provided by JALUX.

Fleet

The Japan Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (at November 2005; more aircraft at http://www.jal.co.jp/en/aircraft/):

Type	#	Seats	Notes
Airbus A300-625R	28	292	Domestic routes; partial were former Japan Air System aircraft
Boeing 737-400	23	150	JAL Express/JTA domestic routes
Boeing 747-100	2	533	High-density domestic routes
Boeing 747-200	5		High-density domestic routes
Boeing 747-300	11	350~483	High-density domestic routes
Boeing 747-400	42	416-568	High-density domestic routes and international routes
Boeing 767-200	3	230	Domestic routes
Boeing 767-300	23	213~239	Domestic routes
Boeing 767-300ER	13 (2 on order)		International routes
Boeing 777-200	14 (3 on order)	389	Domestic routes; partial were former Japan Air System aircraft
Boeing 777-200ER	11		International routes; partial were former Japan Air System aircraft
Boeing 777-300	8	470	Domestic routes
Boeing 777-300ER	4 (9 on order)	292	International routes Launch customer of aircraft
Boeing 787	(30 on order)		Domestic routes and International routes
McDonnell Douglas MD-81	18	163	Domestic routes; were former Japan Air System aircraft
McDonnell Douglas MD-87	8	134	Domestic routes; were former Japan Air System aircraft
McDonnell Douglas MD-90	16	166	Domestic routes; were former Japan Air System aircraft

The Boeing customer codes for Japan Airlines are x46 for JAL International (pre-merger JAL aircraft) and x89 for JAL Domestic (former JAS aircraft);

Aircraft disposed of include 8 Boeing 737-400, 8 Boeing 747-100, 6 Boeing 747SR (one now being used as a NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft), 19 Boeing 747-200, 5 Boeing 747-300 and 10 McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft.

In December 2004, Japan Airlines announced the selection of the Boeing 787 for its medium-size aircraft fleet. It is seeking for 30 aircraft, with options on 20 more. Delivery is expected to start in 2008 and the aircraft will be used on domestic and international routes (ref: Airliner World, March 2005).

Japan Airlines confirmed an order for six new Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, three freighter and three passenger models, valued at approximately $800 million at list prices (ref:Airliner World, September 2005).

On October 31, 2005 Japan Airlines operated its last two DC-10 flights. One aircraft, JA8543, operating flight JL736 from Hong Kong International Airport to Narita International Airport, touched down at 16:05. Another aircraft, JA8541, operating flight JL952 from Incheon International Airport to Narita International Airport touched down at 16:37, marking the DC-10's last flight with the airline, after over 30 years of reliable operations with the airline.

Since 1984, Japan Airlines has been and is currently the largest Boeing 747 operator in the world.

The average age of Japan Airlines fleet is 12.1 years old in April 2006.

Livery

The JAL livery is called the "Arc of the Sun." The livery features the motif of a rising sun on a creamy parchment colored background. JAL is a strong supporter of UNICEF and expresses its support by having a "We Support UNICEF" logo on each of the airline's aircraft.

JAL is known for adopting special liveries for individual aircraft. One 747, registration JA8908, carries an Adidas soccer livery. Another 747, registration JA8907, is the Matsui Jet, featuring the famous Japanese baseball player Hideki Matsui. The airline's Boeing 767-300, registration JA8253, is the Expo 2005 airplane. Various aircraft in the JAL fleet carry a Yokoso Japan logo supporting the Visit Japan campaign. During late 2005, Japan Airlines began using a Boeing 777 (registration JA8941), featuring Japanese actor Shingo Katori on one side, and television series Saiyuki, along with it's main character "Goku" on the other side ^*

JALways' fleet includes some colourful Boeing 747 and DC-10 aircraft with "Reso'cha" titles. These aircraft are used on charter flights to holiday destinations in the Pacific, such as Hawaii. Reso'cha is a marketing abbreviation for Resort Charter. Reso'cha planes were formerly known as JAL Super Resort Express.

JAL is actively repainting all its aircraft with the new livery but one can still see JAL, JAA and JALways aircraft in their old liveries.

JAL is also known for its numerous liveries featuring Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, as it is the official airline of the Tokyo Disney Resort. They sponsor the attraction, Star Jets (not related to past Star Jets fleet with the old Red Crane livery), which feature a variation of the current livery on the ride vehicles. At one time there was more than 6 widebody aircraft painted with the special liveries.

In fiction

In Area 88, Yamato Airlines (YAL) was based on Japan Airlines.
Japan Airlines plays a prominent role in Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor.
In Azumanga Daioh, Japan Airlines was featured in episode 21.
Japan Airlines was the major sponsor of the Japanese TV drama Attention Please, airing in spring 2006. JAL provided aircraft and locations for filming in this TV drama.

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Japan Airlines