Japan Undertaking Afghan Evacuation Ops of Its Own; C-2, C-130s and Boeing 777

 Reported August 25, 2021

 

 

The Government has decided to send the Japanese Air Force One for Afghanistan evacuation operations to supplement the already dispatched three JASDF aircraft for sending additional servicemen. The Boeing 777 will be arriving in Pakistan as the operation base.

 

Boeing 777-300ER, Japanese Air Force One

 

Three JASDF transport aircraft, a C-2 and two C-130Hs, departed on August 24. The C-2, indegenous jet military transport by Kawasaki, arrived at Islamabad, capital of Pakistan on August 24 evening and C-130s are due to join there by August 25.

 

Japan intends to transport remaining Japanese nationals and local Afghan staff working for Japanese institutions.

 

C-2

 

C-130s, stationed at Komaki Air Base, arrived at Iruma Air Base in the Tokyo metropolitan region to pick up personnel and supplies. The two aircraft had to refuel in Naha Air Base enroute to Central Asia.

 

These C-130s will shuttle between Kabul and Islamabad or other nearby destinations to carry refugees.

 

Self Defense Forces will send 260 men and women to Afghanistan including Central Quick Response Regiment personnel for support.

 

The government decided to reinforce airlift capacity as the operation is valid until the US forces finish evacuation and Japan has to expedite its own operations.

 

The government 777 will send the servicemen, water and supplies but will return to Japan without any passengers.

Honda Jet Flies by Bio Fuel First Time In Japan

 

Honda Jet Elite Succeeds to Fly by SAF

Japanese news outlet Response https://response.jp/category/airplane/latest/

reported on June 30 that a Honda Jet Elite made a flight by biofuel of Euglena, a Japanese venture. 

The flight took place on June 29 from Kagoshima Airport and landed at Haneda International Airport after almost 90 minutes.

The sustainable aviation fuel used in this flight was prepared by blending used edible oil and eugulena-derived fat after certification. The bio fuel was mixed with conventional jet fuel.

Japan Biz Aviation, a private jet operator, will start charter flights of Honda Jet Elite from fall 2021 by offering an option of flight by bio fuel.■

Narita: Fully Automatic Passenger Boarding Bridge Test Begins

 

Aviation and Space News from Japan

Automatic Operation of Passenger Boarding Bridge under testing at Narita

Japanese news media Response reported the following:

A new fully automatic boarding bridge is being tested at Narita International Airport in Chiba, Japan. Airport personnel moves a lever, then a camera recognizes the position of the door and the bridge moves to a preposition point automatically.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Transportation and Construction Engineering, an affiliate of giant Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, announced with Narita International Airport Company on April 26 that they will work together to install the world’s first fully automatic passenger boarding bridge by applying ICT and IoT engineering.

The new concept is expected to enhance the efficiency of ground handling work at airport terminals and to ease stress due to labor shortage.

As the first trial, the automatic operation has started at gate 67 of Terminal 2 of Narita. Graphic analysis of the system recognizes the position of an aircraft door and it activates full automatic operation to move the bridge to the aircraft.

Future development includes a remote operation from tablet and simultaneous operation of two and more boarding bridges to an aircraft. Its final goal is a fully unmanned operation of a passenger boarding bridge as the first of its kind in the world in September 2025.

ANA Devices New Lavatory Pull Handle Style to Open by Elbow for Fear of Finger Touching Expressed by Passengers

 

ANA announced a modified door for opening the door to get out without touching the hand but with elbow actions.

A spokesperson of ANA said the passengers had expressed fear to touch on the door and the largest Japanese carrier added a handle on the pull handle so that a passenger can open the door to go out from the lavatory.

First of a kind, ANA will introduce the device to middle- and large aircraft fleet operating domestic routes in Japan.

Japan Airlines to Acquire LCC Spring Air Japan Anticipating Post-COVID Tourism of Chinese Visitors to Japan

 

Japan Airlines is going to acquire over 51% stocks of Spring Airlines Japan, a low cost carrier (LCC) and an affiliate of Spring Airlines of Shanghai, China, by June to make the LCC as a consolidated subsidiary of the major carrier. JAL owns about 5% of the stocks of Spring Airlines Japan at present.

Japan Airlines will pursue to get in-bound tourists to Japan after COVID-19 will be dwindled.

Spring Airlines Japan was launched in 2012 by Spring Airlines of China. Japanese investors, including JAL, have invested in this new airline with head office in Narita City, Chiba.  From its hub in Narita, Spring Airlines Japan operates domestic routes such as Shin Chitose, Hiroshima, Saga as well as international routes to Tianjin, Harbin and such, hoping to get connected to strong network of Spring China.

JAL hopes to acquire leisure tourists through this LCC. As more remote work and video conferencing has become popular, JAL cannot expect the return of robust business demands anytime soon.

 

This Airport in Nagoya Is Run by Toyota Way of Doing Business, Struggling in COVID-19 Pandemic Against Conditions But Confident to Overcome Low Air Travel Demands

 

An Airport Run by Toyota Way of Business in  Nagoya, Japan

Flight of Dreams is within the premises of Central Japan International Airpot, or Centrair. exhibiting the first example of Boeing 787 and features shops and restaurants. 

 

Toyo Keizai Online reported on what is happening at Chubu International Airport or Centrair in post-pandemic days.

Centrair is a case of airport management reform advocated by the government of Japan for a concession method where the ownership of the airport remains in the hand of the government but operations of runways and terminal buildings consigned to the private sector.

 This approach has been adopted for expecting the vitality of the private sector could change conventional airport management where money-losing was accepted as a matter of fact. 

In pre-pandemic years, growing inbound tourism demands and expansion of low-cost carriers were positive news for regional airports including Centrair, located south of Nagoya.  But COVID-19 stopped this trend and airport management is now getter harder with community economics having been hit much harder. Accordingly, airport management of today calls for the foresight to catch the change of time and bold decisions and actions.

'We discuss matters only with business management rules, making cash flow to neutral and making profit….What should we do? What our customers and local community want us in post-pandemic days? We simply try to go faster than the rest of airports for a goal of profitability,' said Riki Inuzuka, president and CEO of Central Japan International Airport Co., Ltd. Inuzuka, who took the seat of the CEO of Centrair, just seven months ago, saw two records of high and low in international flights in three months, namely January with the highest and April, the lowest, both in 2020.

Centrair was inaugurated in 2005 and took the attention of the industry as the cutting edge airport in Japan in terms of environmental policy, customer service quality, exploration of commercial facilities. However, after a decade or more, the other airports in Japan have caught up or surpassed Centrair. Mere reduction of airport landing charge has no appeal now, Inuzuka said.

Centrair saw a series of new features including Flight of Dreams, an aviation theme part by collaboration with Boeing, Terminal 2 for LCCs, International exhibition halls since 2018. Inuzuka envisions going a step further.

Turning to black 

Construction of Centrair, an airport built on an artificial island off the coast as Japan has so limited space on land to build an airport, adopted market principles from the design stage and the five CEOs have all been from Toyota Motor. With Toyota's way of production adopted to the construction, they could save over JPY170 billion, a well-known story in Japan, but also they pioneered airport management in Japan for the adoption of “visible management” and advanced strategy for prioritizing revenues from commercial sales.

Except for two years of losing money in 2008 and 2009 when the Lehman shock brought with the economic slump, Centrair recorded profitability in ten consecutive years.

Inuzuka, back in 2009, was department head of corporate planning at Toyota Motor when the global car giant reported a historic record of deficit in the worldwide recession. He faced many risk events at Toyota including recalling vehicles. 

 'I always recalled what the top officers back then at Toyota had done when I faced a critical moment for the survival of this company. Regardless of whether profitable or not, Toyota always seeks to eliminate fat. Coronavirus of today gave us a good chance to rethink the profitability of each and every element of our airport operations,’ he said.

Back in 2009, when the business turned to red with a passenger ship of 9 million, Centrair could record black with a further decline of 8.9 million passengers in 2011. This past record suggests to secure fundamental corporate strength to ‘turn to profitable even with 9 million passengers,’ he said.

Human Resource as Key Factor

The airport management company started with a mix of those from local governments and others from private firms.  The company consists of 200 full-time employees and those loaned staff from local governments account for only 10 percent today. As those staff hired after the start of the airport are getting higher in the company, Inuzuka said  HRD by Centrair way is getting more tangible recently.

‘As airport management calls for higher public service, it cannot be sustained with the same sensitivity of a private firm. National support is absolutely necessary. Based on that, how should we pursue a similar approach to private business practice to sustaining our operations in healthy status?  After all, I feel we can do it as long as we gather those who love airports, love doing business, love aircraft…, ‘ Inuzuka talked of his vision.

It doesn't matter where people came from, it also does not matter how an airport is administered either by private ownership, the third-sector or not. All matters are sharing of goals and objectives of working among the management and employees, he emphasized. ‘We will not miss a direction.’

Next Gen H3 Heavy Launching System Nears Completion at Mitsubishi Heavy

 

MHI and JAXA showed the next-generation launching rocket H3 at Tobishima, Aichi, January 23,2021

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) showed H3, the next-generation launching rocket, for the press on January 23, 2021. They will seek demands for satellite launching from governments and corporations. The space launching market is getting more competitive with start-ups scoring more successes and Japan expects to get more orders earlier and enhance reliability records for survival.

The body section of an H3 test unit was shown to the press at Tobishima Plant of MHI in Tobishima, Aichi. Its diameter is 5.2 meters, and its length is 57 meters. Launching capacity will be 1.3 times greater than current H2A and will be able to put larger satellites for broadcasting or communication as much as 6.5 t into orbit. H3 is under development as a replacement for H2A. The original schedule of the first launch of H3 was postponed to fiscal 2021 due to defects of the turbine. After production in Aichi, central Japan, H3 will be transported to Tanegashima, a remote island off Kyushu for launching.

A key point of H3 is the cost. Unit price is to be lowered to about JPY 5 billion in order to appeal to private sector demands, a  weak spot by H2A.  For lowering the price, more off-the-shelf components and increasing the launches of more than six times a year.  The structure of the tip of the rocket has been simplified as well. Lead time from taking the order to launching would be halved to a year.

MHI looks forward to capturing more customers by the appealing previous records of reliability in addition to lower prices. In the first phase, H3 will be confirmed of its performance as well as used for optical communication satellite projects. It will be used for the planned Mars exploration.

MHI has a successful launching record of 98.1% by conventional H2A and H2B, surpassing the world standard of 95%.  Survival in the global market calls for enhanced cost competitiveness by increasing its launching record. ■

Air Asia Japan Files Bankruptcy

 

AirAsia Japan, an affiliate of low-cost carrier Air Asia, filed bankruptcy at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday.

Air Asia Japan started flight operations just three years ago from its hub at Centrair Chubu International Airport (NGO) near Nagoya to three domestic destinations of Sapporo Shin-Chitose, Sendai, and Fukuoka as well as one international route to Taipei. Its total debt is estimated at about JPY 22 billion. With a forthcoming decision by the courthouse, the carrier will start bankruptcy processes.

However, with the overwhelming negative impact of COVID-19, the carrier saw its revenue dropping and no sign of recovery leading to cease all operations by December 5, 2020.

Its employees counting 280 are now mostly dismissed and looking for new employment opportunities.

ANA Requests Toyota to Accept Surplus Peronnel

 

ANA Holdings, expecting the largest loss in its history of JPY500 billion (USD 5 billion)  will announce its business restructuring plans on October 27.  We learned its outline as follows:

• In order to reduce its payrolls by 3,500 persons by fiscal 2022, ANA will request companies such as Toyota Motor to accept its employees on loan as well as freezing new hires

• Salary of its employees will be cut by 5% per month, no plans for winter bonuses for them

• International flights, if they restart, will be concentrated to Tokyo Haneda first

• The fleet size of larger aircraft will be reduced by 30%, deferring to accept the third example of A380 by a year

In the meantime, ANA will launch a new subsidiary to make use of data of its mileage program members for new merchandising.

Personnel expenses account for about 30% of its fixed cost. Toyota and others are reportedly starting to plan to accept excess ANA employees. 

ANA’s ambitious business expansion plans turned to backfire with the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant slowing down of the aviation market.

ANA will try to survive in the reversed business environment by securing JPY 500 billion by issuing its subordinated bond.

ANA Flies Idle A380 for Domestic Charter Service

 

ANA

Mynavi News reported that All Nippon Airways (ANA) operated its Airbus A380, called Flying Honu, for a chartered flight for paid passengers in Japan to make them feel like flying to Hawaii.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, ANA’s A380s, exclusively put in its Hawaii route, were grounded. This chartered flight was after a five-month period.

The chartered flight took place on August 22, 2020, from Narita for about 90 minutes as a special summer experience for the lucky passengers who won their tickets out of so many applications. 

A spokesperson for ANA told reporters that the carrier would offer the same flight experience and fun to passengers through precautions against the epidemic disease. 

By putting the aircraft to a chartered flight, ANA could avoid mandatory heavy maintenance for an aircraft without flying for over 90 days.

Inside the cabin, flight attendants wore Aloha shirts serving the passengers with drinks while showing the same safety video meant for passengers destined to Hawaii so that the passengers could feel like flying to Hawaii.

The fares for the flight ranged from JPY 14,000 (about USD 130) for economy class and JPY50,000 (about USD 470), quite reasonable for wide variety of passengers of aircraft and travelling enthusiasts. ANA reportedly received 150 timers greater applicants to the available seats

ANA announced it would operate another chartered flight in September thanks to such a big interest.■

 

MoD to Announce Very New Style of Contracting for Japan's Next Fighter Jet Development

Japan's Next Fighter Jet to Develop with Sole Contractor from Japan

----July 28, 2020----

The Nikkei Shimbun web edition reported today the Defense Ministry of Japan has chosen contracting with a sole company in Japan for the development of the next fighter jets for its  air self-defense force to be deployed from 2035. The Defense Ministry will announce this style of contracting very soon, the Nikkei reports.

This contractor will coordinate the development and production with participating other firms from Japan and U.S. It is intended, Nikkei assumes, to enhance development and production capabilities of Japanese firms.

The next fighter, called F-3, will replace current Mitsubishi F-2 fighters, a Japan-U.S.joint work based on F-16, that will start retiring from 2035.  With appropriation of the development expenses in Japan's fiscal 2021 budget and complete prototype examples in fiscal 2024.

Estimated production size of the fighter jets is said to be ninety with approx. JPY 5 trillion budget for the entire processes including procurement.

Under the new style of fighter jet development, Japanese corporations will undergo the entire processes of designing, development and production of its battle system as well as main parts. It is highly expected U.S. corporations will join in the development with supervision of the sole contractor from Japan.

For this sole contractor, many expect Mitsubishi Heavy Industry while Kawasaki Heavy Industry, Subaru, and IHI from Japan and Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman are expected to join as contractors.

JASDF operates F-35 joint strike fighters assembled in U.S. but its key technologies are non-disclosed and Japan is not allow any modification. Its battle system should be upgraded for convenience of U.S. side. Japanese officials have voiced dissatisfaction with lower degree of freedom in operation and little chance to accumulate technologies in Japan's defense industry.

The selection of this style of contracting is reflecting strong wishes of Japan's defense industrial sector.

Lockheed Martin once proposed a hybrid model of F-22 and F-35 for Japan's next fighter jets but this was never taken up as Japan has insisted to develop the new fighter with its own initiative. 

Some speculates U.S. will demand Japan to make the development with more American involvement after November U.S. presidential election, Nikkei reports.

Japan's Newest Carrier ZIPAIR Starts Flight Service as Cargo Only

画像：ZIPAIRプレスリリース

ZIPAIR Tokyo or ZIPAIR, a newly established low cost carrier subsidiary of Japan Airlines, inaugurated its scheduled cargo flight from Narita to Bangkok, Thailand on June 3, 2020.

ZIPAIR, a whole owned by JAL, operates two Boeing 787-8s. The new LCC aims at starting other routes to Southeast Asian destination and trans-Pacific routes.  

The carrier originally planned to start its passenger flight between Narita and Suvarnabhumi Airport from 14 May 2020 but it postponed the start due to the pandemic of COVID-19. 

Over 90 percent of scheduled international flights have been stopped, the demand for air cargo is  steadily rising and ZIPAIR has decided to launch its scheduled cargo flight at first.

ZIPAIR offers four cargo flights a week as below. 

ZG51　Narita 17:20/ Bankok 22:00 　Wed/Thur/Fri/Sat

ZG52　Bangkok 23:30/Narita 07:45（+1）　Wed/Thur/Fri/Sat

The carrier has not announced a flight schedule for its passenger flights yet.  As ZIPAIR has a plan to operate Narita-Incheon flights, it is probable that the flight to and from Korea will take place in daytime and Bangkok service will take place in night. ZIPAIR has announced its plan to start the Korean flight effective from July 1.  However, passenger service between Japan and South Korea is still under restriction and business environment is not favorable yet.

The new LCC has also announced its plans to start Narita-Honolulu flights from winter schedule of 2020.

Visit ZIPAIR website. http://www.zipairtokyo.com/en/