Japan Airlines Co, Asia's biggest carrier, said October bookings for overseas flights fell 40 percent from a year earlier as demand slumped after the terrorist attacks, possibly leading to more capacity cuts.
Bookings for transpacific flights are running at less than half the level of October last year, while those to Europe and Asia are down 30 percent, said Katsuo Haneda, a senior vice president at Japan Airlines, in a Bloomberg Television interview.
"Looking at the recent trends of declines, we may have to cut capacity by five to 10 percent if demand remains down," Haneda said. The cuts would be in addition to the 5 percent reduction in flights planned for November, he said.
Global carriers are struggling with weaker demand for air travel after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent US-led retaliation in Afghanistan. Japan Airlines, which generates about 70 percent of its sales on international routes, is more exposed to the drop in travel than rival All Nippon Airways Co, which gets about 70 percent of its sales at home.
"All Nippon is the better of the two," said Ichiro Takamatsu, who helps manages about US$480 million in stocks for Cigna International Investment Advisors Co. "A lot of the bad news has already been discounted in the share price, so the stock is unlikely to fall much further," he said.
"There have been no falls in domestic bookings" for October, Haneda said. The drop in European bookings came in part after the US began attacks in Afghanistan, he said.
"The 40 percent fall [in overseas bookings] is huge," said Osuke Itazaki, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston.
Japan Airlines' President, Isao Kaneko, representing the country's major carriers, including All Nippon and Japan Air System Co, yesterday asked the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to establish a system to give the country's airlines emergency loans and cover the cost of additional security.
Japan Airlines shares fell 4.1 percent yesterday to close at ?306.
The airline has no plan to defer any aircraft orders from Boeing Co, Haneda said.
Japan Airlines, which has never bought aircraft from Boeing's rival Airbus SAS, ordered 10 planes last November, worth as much as US$1.6 billion. This purchase included eight 777-200ER jets and two 767-300ER planes, while other Boeing planes are also on order.
Even though flights are being reduced, Japan Airlines expects to get more than 20 percent of new landing rights at Tokyo's international airport at Narita, adding to their quarter share of the existing capacity. The government will allocate the extra slots as soon as next month ahead of the runway's opening next April, Haneda said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS