All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japan's second-largest airline, said yesterday it is considering launching low-cost carriers to prepare for expansion at Tokyo's clogged domestic airport.
Budget carriers have proliferated across Asia but barely taken off in Japan, owing to the high airport landing fees and the already dense route network by ANA and its embattled rival Japan Airlines (JAL).
"Launching budget airlines is within our sight," an ANA spokeswoman said.
The Financial Times reported yesterday that ANA planned to launch low-cost domestic and international airlines by 2009. The international airline would focus on China and South Korea, which Japanese carriers see as growth markets.
The Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun in January also reported the ANA budget carrier plan.
The 2009 target would coincide with the opening of a new runway at Haneda, the domestic gateway to Tokyo which is the busiest airport in Asia.
"In 2009, competition will increase and low-cost carriers, particularly from elsewhere in Asia, will start flying into Tokyo. We have to be well prepared for it," ANA chief executive Mineo Yamamoto told the Financial Times.
The ANA spokeswoman said the budget carrier plan was not definite.
"We have to examine the plan from now on but nothing official has been decided yet," she said.
Home-grown budget airlines have already limited domestic service, including Skymark Airlines Co which in February slashed fares on some of its routes in Japan by another 50 percent.
The launch of budget carriers would be another step up for ANA in its rivalry with JAL, which has been stung by a series of safety scares. Both Japanese airlines have seen their bottom line suffer due to high oil costs.
JAL plunged into the red in the financial year to March, although it expects to return to profit this year.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)