Living in Fukuoka and Commuting to Tokyo, Housing and Unlimited Round trips in All-in-One Package, New Subscription Service by STARFLIER for Remote Workers
Nikkei reported the new subscription service by Starflier on October 12:
Starflier will launch a subscription service by spring 2023 that combines rental housing in Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu, with airfare between Tokyo and Fukuoka. The service will encourage company employees in the Tokyo metropolitan area, who often work remotely, to relocate to Fukuoka. In principle, the service will allow unlimited air travel, which will lead to a recovery in yield that has dropped due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Starflier Chairman Tomonori Yokoe told the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), "We will launch a subscriber program by spring 2023 that includes rent for an apartment or house and a round-trip ticket between Kitakyushu Airport and Haneda Airport. We hope to announce the outline of the service as early as by the end of this year," he said.
Yokoe explained that the target users of the new service are "company employees who live in rental apartments in Tokyo with their families. He hopes to set the monthly fee at the same level as the rent of an apartment for a family in the 23 wards of Tokyo. The family will be able to move to a property in Fukuoka and fly to Tokyo whenever they need to for work or other reasons. He emphasizes, "If they can live in a larger house in Fukuoka for about the same rent as in Tokyo, and also have unlimited access to airplanes, we will increase the satisfaction of our customers.
Users will be able to make reservations for airline tickets by accessing a members-only page. The monthly fee is expected to be in the JPY 200,000 (USD1,350 up) range, but Mr. Yokoe said, "There is an opinion within the company that 300,000 to 400,000 yen would be preferable," and that the details will be worked out in the future. While he stated that "there is no point in subscriptions if you can't fly whenever you need to," he added that he was still considering whether to include peak periods, such as the year-end and New Year holidays, in the unlimited travel period.
Fukuoka City is home to many branches and offices of large corporations, and corporate demand for single workers is also expected.
Mr. Yokoe commented on the airline business, "Basically, it is a fixed-cost business. In order to recover the business performance that deteriorated due to the Corona disaster, we need to reduce the number of empty seats on board," he explains. Starflier's average occupancy rate for the fiscal year ended March 2010 was 52.6%, down about 22 points from the pre-Corona disaster level in the fiscal year ended March 2007.
The standard break-even point for an airline is said to be a boarding rate of about 70%. With remote work taking root, there is a strong possibility that business travel demand will not return to the same level as before the COVID disaster. In order to return to profitability, which had been in the red for three consecutive years until the previous fiscal year, it is essential to cultivate demand from non-business travelers. The airline companies' new subscription plans are expected to capture the demand for regional migration in the aftermath of the Corona disaster.
Yokoe came to Starflier from Hankyu Corporation, a major private railway company. He was asked by Advantage Advisors (Minato, Tokyo), an investment company that supports Starflier, to become chairman in late June, together with President Osamu Machida, who transferred from All Nippon Airways (ANA). Although he has no experience in the airline industry, he is expected to develop services from an outsider's perspective.
He confided that when he solicited ideas for new services within the company after assuming the chairman's position, "we received 120 replies. He plans to launch a new project, including the person who proposed the idea as a member, with the aim of commercializing the service.
