Rumor: JAL to reduce London frequency to 1 daily?

jiaotze from FlyerTalk posted a news article from Japan Today saying Japan Airlines will reduce its Narita-Heathrow frequency from twice daily to once daily starting December 7 2009.

The article suggests JAL will formally announce the plan in early November but JAL has already informed travel agencies about the cut so they can make changes to their plans. JAL currently operated one 777-200ER and one 777-300ER flights every day. The 772 flight has a two class configuration while the 773 has 3. JAL added the 772 flight after they axed the daily Kansai-Heathrow back in March. Looks like the 772 flight (JAL 402/403) will be the one to go.

JAL really has trouble filling those seats, especially the business class ones. The other day I was doing a random check on JL402 in December (I was helping someone on FlyerTalk), I noticed ZERO assigned C seats. I know this doesn't necessarily mean zero C seats sold, but I would say it's a pretty good indication of the C load even if it's not 100%. I hope JAL can regain the slot when the economy turns better but we all know how busy Heathrow is :(