Sankei Shimbun, May 17, 2012Shin-ichiro Ito, President of All Nippon Airways (ANA) told at a press conference on May 17 that he paid respect to JAL’s efforts to their corporate rehabilitation while raising a concern that ‘if there is a fair and level market for us.’ Japan Airlienes had announced a robust and higher than expected corporate performance for previous year prior to this press conference.
What Ito referred was that ANA sees JAL’s strengthening was possible as it receives a tail-wind legal supports following JAL's filing of bankruptcy, thus distorting ‘competitive market environment.’
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JAL’s net profit for a year ending March 2012 was JPY186.6 billion (ca US$23 billion), a record high iin its history while ANA could record JPY28 billion only.
JAL’s better performance can be attributed to special financial benefits as the company could carry over huge amount of deficit to following years thus lowering the payment of corporate tax by balancing out as well as lowered amount of depreciation costs as the company is under application of corporate bankruptcy law.
Ito stated in the press conference that ANA recognizes JAL’s rehabilitation processes are legitimate but ANA cannot achieve a comparable level of net profit. However he bitterly commented that fair competition could benefit consumers after all.
