Flying with Peach: ANA’s new brand for LCC is Peach

28 May 2011

ANA has announced on May 24 that its LCC would be named Peach.Shinichi Ito, CEO, stated ‘the company wishes to become the first LCC from Japan to Asian destinations.’

Peach will start its scheduled flight service from its home at Kansai International Airport to domestic destinations of Fukuoka and Shin Chitose (Sapporo) from March 2012 and international destinations starting from Inchon (Seoul) in May 2012. Peach will pursue the general level of airfare of other LCCs, around half of major airlines.

There are some speculations that ANA, a legacy airline, cannot get success in LCC business as the two brands would vie for the same customers at the same air routes.

Recognizing the previous cases of too interference from parent companies that led to failure of new born LCCs, ANA’s CEO Shin-ichiro Ito wishes to tolerate some degree of ‘dog-eat-dog’ situations in existing domestic routes.

Of current employees of 50 at Peach, a third is transferred from ANA and the new born LCC wants to hire more mid-career from other airlines and other business sectors and gradually reduce the influence of ANA’s culture.　

Peach's website in English: http://www.flypeach.com/?lang=en

Japanese Air Force Made 29% More Scramble Flights; 2.5 Times More for Chinese Aircraft in 2010

from Nihon Keizai Shimbun, April 28, 2011

Defense Ministry’s Joint Staff Council (JSC) released the number of scrambling by Japan Air Self Defense Force (JADSF) during fiscal 2010, April 2010-March 2011. The number for Chinese aircraft showed 2.5 times increase from the previous year by a total of 96 missions. Scrambling for Russian aircraft accounted for 68％ as the largest with 264 sorties or 34% increase. The statistics show the two countries were intensified for their intelligence and information gathering missions to Japan.
The total number of scrambling was 368 times in fiscal 2010, a 29% increase but there was no case of incursion to the Japanese airspace, according to JSC. A peak of the number of scrambling was recorded in 1984, in the midst of cold war, with 944 sorties, then it went down as low as 331 times in fiscal 1992.

The Russians carried out long distance flight along with the Japanese airspace from the Sea of Japan to the Pacific Ocean while the Chinese approached closer to the Senkaku Islands that Japan claims as its territory.

Since March 11 earthquake, JASDF still flew its interceptors to the approaching aircraft of the two countries: 14 sorties to the Russians and 4 times for the Chinese respectively.

Photo Ministry of Defense

JAL Reborn In More Troubled Sky

March 29,2011

Japan Airline's corporate rehabilitation process has come to complete on March 28 as it was decided by the Tokyo District Court. JAL got additional loan of about 255 billion yen (about $3 billion) from banks, that was used to repay its carryover debt of about 395 billion yen with its own cash. However, Japanese air traffic would be in a hard time after March 11 earthquake/tsunami and the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and its path to growth again is not secured.

JAL had filed an application for the corporate rehabilitation process on January 19,2010; it had over 1 trillion yen debt     back then and literally bankrupt.  Its major transaction banks abandoned their loan armouring 520 billion yen. JAL completed a tough restructuring plan such as slashing off 16,000 employees as a whole group level, dropping unprofitable air routes and capacity cutting that had approval of the court in November 2010.

The global economic recovery worked positively for JAL to earn 175 billion yen operating profit in 11 months from April  2010 until February 2011. This better performance resulted in additional loans from the banks.

However, the post quake traffic is decreasing overall and Ken Onishi, President of JAL, revealed its domestic demand is 28% off while international demand is 25% down.
　
Kazuo Inamori, Chairman, is confident to run JAL better now by seeing profitability by air route, though he expects lowering of the corporate performance is unavoidable.

Russian Aircraft Violated Japan’s Airspace; Possibly to Collect Radioactive Air Sample

From the Asahi Shimbun, March 30, 2011
   
Two Russian aircraft entered Japan’s air defense identification zones with air dust collection pods as found by the Japanese air force; most probably the Russian aircraft was missioned to collect radioactive matters in the air as released from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident to find the effect to their own country.

Defense Ministry official told that a Su-27 flew from Vladivostok to the coast off Akita, Japan entering Japan’s Air Defence Identification Zone from 8:30am to 10:30am (local time) on March 21. On the same day, from 10:30 am to 11:30 am, another aircraft, An12 for electronic warfare, flew from off coast of Noto Peninsular to the western coast of Hokkaido, another intrusion to ADIZ.

The both aircraft were intercepted by fighter aircraft of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force that visually observed the Russian aircraft were fitted with dust collection pods respectively. The Su-27 was found to be flying at different altitudes of 2,000 ft to 20,000 ft., a typical flight profile to identify the thickest air with radioactive substances.
　
Japan’s Defense Ministry has analyzed their flight patterns were provocative as 1) the Russian aircraft purposely intruded Japan”s ADIZs knowing to trigger scrambling of Japanese air force 2) the Russians apparently tried to check the current alertness by Japan for air space intrusion while a large-scale deployment of its military power is ongoing to rescue missions to March 11 earthquake and tsunami disasters.

Post Quake Support: Two Globalhawks Flying Over Japan

USAF is operating two Globalhawk UAVs and U-2s over Japan, esp. Tohoku region where intensive damage by March 11 earthquake and tsunami directly hit. Unofficially the casualty of this disaster is exceeding 20,000 mark, including those who still missing.

Globalhawk is especially put on special imagery information gathering mission flying high over Fukushima Diichi nuclear plant where the desperate efforts are going on to cool down those uncontrolled nuclear reactors.

Mainichi Shimbun reported that the imagery information data was shared by USAF to the Japanese government but Tokyo is reluctant to show the images of the plant to Japanese public. The reasons for its reluctance is unknown but USAF has gave the information to the Japanese government  without conditions, reportedly.

Earthquake Update: Three Airports Closed

Sendai,  Hanamaki and Ibaraki Airports are closed as of now by the  severe earthquake on Friday. Sendai airport view was observed by fly over airplane, showing its tarmac and runway was completely washed by tsunami and covered by brown muddy soil while some light airplanes still standing although they are out of order.

Narita International Airport is operative and the author of this blog had landed there on Saturday afternoon; inside the airport terminal, some moving escalators were inoperative showing power failure's damage to the system.

Local and land transportation is largely disturbed while ANA, JAL are operating special flights to airports of Tohoku (north eastern region) such as Aomori, Yamagata and Fukushima. Yamagata Airport is now designated as 24-hour operation emergency base for rescue missions.

This report is compiled as of 5 pm JST (+9 UTC) from various reporting.

Breaking News; Narita and Sendai Airports Closed by Quake

By stronger-ever earthquake off the coast of northeastern part of Honshu island in the afternoon of Friday March 11 (local time), both Narita International and Sendai airports are closed of the entire operations. NHK public broadcasting showed Sendai airport where its terminal tarmac was washed by Tsunami tidal waves while people escaped to the rooftop of the terminal. No direct damage to Narita is reported so far.
 

JAL's Recovery On Track

JAL Records Higher Profit Than Originally Planned 
/JAL To Get New Capital

From Jiji Press and Yomiuri Shimbun, 26 February 2011

Japan Airlines, under corporate rehabilitation, will  be highly likely to          record consolidated profit of JPY170 billion (US$2 billion) at the end of March 2011. This amount is 2.6 times larger than the originally planned profit by the corporate rehabilitation plans as submitted to the Tokyo District Court at the end of last August, attributed to the company’s overall cost reduction efforts. The forecasted amount of profit is the record high in the history of JAL The higher cash flow will help the airliner to strengthen its financial foundation, the company’s weak point over the years.

JAL will welcome additional financial help from eight companies as capital investment of JPY 20 billion at maximum. New investors will include Tokio Marine and JTB, travel agency among other six companies of Daiwa Securities, Kyocera, Mitsui Sumitomo Marine and Fire, Sompo Japan, MS & AD Insurance and Hankyu Travel. JAL first wanted a larger capital investment  as much as 50 billion yen; as the result of JAL’s overall management performance will lower the amount to 20 billion level.

Apart from that, JAL  expects a new financial loan equivalent of JPY280 billion from major dealing five banks led by Development Bank of Japan as well as new members such as Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking, Aozora, Tokyo Star, Chiba Banks as well as Okinawa Development Finance Corporation.

Japan Succeeds HTV Launch

The second unit of Japanese heavy lift H2B, launched from Tanegashima Space Center, Kagoshima, on 14:37 local time on January 22. Its payload, Kounotori 2 (Stork), also known as HTV, unmanned space replenish vessel for International Space Station (ISS), was separated normally about 15 minutes after the launch at altitude of 300 kilometers and put into earth orbit. This successful launch is a sequel to September 2009.

HTV was developed by JAXSA, Japanese Space Agency, as Japanese commitment to provide a means of supply materials to ISS. After five days from the launch, HTV will approach to ISS by increasing its altitude and finally will dock to ISS.

HTV, a cylindrical structure with 10 meter length and 4.4 meter diameter, weighs about 16 tons including its payload of experimental devices for Kibo testbed at ISS as well as daily consumables for astronauts including clothing and hygiene supplies such as shampoo. Its total cost of production is about 15 billion yen (about 183 million dollars).

The lift, H2B, is derivative of the original H2A rocket by incorporating two units of H2A engines for larger lift thrust. Unit cost of its launch is also 15 billion yen.  Counting together with its original H2A, H2 series has scored 14 successes consecutively and 19 succeful launches in total. The launch was


JAXSA website ; http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html

SKYMARK Airlines to Launch International Routes from 2014

from Nikkei Shimbun, November 12, 2010

Skymark Airlines showed its plans to inaugurate international scheduled flights from Narita International Airport to three destinations of London, Frankfurt and New York, starting from 2014. The carrier, so far flying only domestic routes, will introduce  six Airbus A380 for this venture and may introduce about half of legacy carriers.

Skymark's A380 will seat as many as 394 with business class accounting for 30%.

Skymark will decide to add 9 more A380s by seeing the performance of the first three routes for more expansion of international routes such as Paris, Los Angeles and Bangkok from Kansai and Chubu International Airports.

For Airbus, this order is the first of A380 in Japan where Boeing aircraft account for 80% in the market and may become a milestone for Airbus.

New Civilian Rescue Flying Boat from ShinMaywa Coming Up

　

ShinMaywa (www.shinmaywa.co.jp) will look for future sales of its civilian version of US-2 flying boat, currently employed for search and rescue aircraft at Japan’s Defense Ministry, by setting a strategic unit price of 7 billion yen (about US$88 million) , 30% off the price of the original defense version.

Bombardier is its main competitor in commercial market; however,ShinMaywa’s is superior in the performance but less competitive in price tag; the Takarazuka, Hyogo-based company redesigns the standard equipments and its production processes to lower unit cost of the aircraft.

US-2 is currently used by Japan Maritime Self Defense Force for rescue mission as well as medical transport from remote islands.  The flying boat can be turned to fire fighting aircraft as well. The company says it has received more than 70 inquiries to the aircraft from southeast Asian, European, and Middle Eastern countries.

US-2 is a follow-up of US-1 flying boat and its orgin dates back to 1960’s PS-1, anti-submarine patrol flying boat. ShinMaywa inherits the engineering experience of Kawanishi Aircraft,  known for successful production of Type-2 flying boat, four-engine large type, used by the Imperial Japanese Navy during WW2 that once flew over Pearl Harbor for reconnaissance missions.

Specifications of US-2
 Crew: 11
 Length: 33.25 m
 Wing span: 33.15 m
 Max take-off weight: 47.7 t
 Max take-off weight (waters): 43.0 t
 Power plant: Rolls Royce AE2100J turboprop (4,591shp) x 4, LHTEC T800 for boundary controlling
 Max speed: 315 kt
 Cruise speed; 260 kt
 Range: 2,500 nm (4,700 km)
 Water take off length: 280 m
 Water landing length: 310 m
 Pressurized cabin
 Glass cockpit

Incrediby Shrinking Japan Airlines

from Sankei Shimbun August 30,2010 and others


Japan Airlines will submit its rehabilitation plans to the Tokyo District Court on August 31 upon approval of the cabinet ministers. On the same day at evening, Chairman Mr. Kazuo Inamori will meet the press conference with Ken Ohnishi, President with officials of Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation of Japan (ETIC), serving as JAL’s receiver.

The plans call for 1) write-off of its debt of 521.5 billion yen (about $6 billion) by syndicate banks 2) new investment by ETIC 3) slashing of employees up to about 16,000  at group wide 4) abolish 45 routes, domesitc and international, by March 2011.

JAL has announced its plan to merger JALWAYS, its subsidiary operator as well as its accounting firm in this year.

JAL wishes to see its stocks relisted at Tokyo Stock Exchange by the end of 2012 after a further restructuring and increased corporate values. The airline hopes to repay 350 billion yen of public fund by selling its stocks. The district court will decide on the approval to the plans by the end of November.

Accotrding to JAL’s plans, the airline is considering to launch its own LCC subsidiary. Its rival ANA has issued its plans to start low cost carrier earlier in August.