Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday, owing more than US$25 billion, and said it would slash 15,700 jobs and unprofitable routes as part of a plan to survive an industry beset by volatile fuel costs and fickle flyers.
JAL, Asia? largest airline by revenues, will remain in the skies thanks to almost ? trillion (US$11 billion) in support from a state-backed fund, but must go through a sweeping restructuring under a new board and management.
Shareholders will be wiped out and lenders will forgive a larger-than-expected ?30 billion in debt as part of the deal with the fund, the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan (ETIC).
PHOTO: AFP
Bankruptcy will only be the beginning for an airline with depleted capital, facing headwinds such as rising fuel prices and shrinking passenger numbers, on top of hefty restructuring costs.
JAL, which has been bailed out by the Japanese government three times in the past 10 years, will replace many of its older, larger and less fuel-efficient planes.
It also faces tough decisions about foreign capital and alliances.
JAL? bankruptcy listing ?.3 trillion in total debts as of Sept. 30 ranks as Japan? fourth-largest ever.
Shares of JAL, which have fallen more than 90 percent since the start of the month, closed flat at ? after trading down ? to ?. They will be de-listed on Feb. 20, the stock exchange said.
With a market value of about US$150 million, JAL is now smaller than minor carriers Croatia Airlines and Jazeera Airways and is worth less than a Boeing 747.
? thought that there was no way that JAL would fail,?said Akiko Saito, a 63-year-old retiree returning from Sydney to Tokyo? Haneda Airport. ?ven when the value of my JAL shares fell from ?00,000 to below ?20,000, I was convinced that it would recover and I held on to my stock.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
RSS