Japan Airlines (JAL) has selected to install TIMCO Aerosystems Featherweight Galley on its new 767-300ER's aircraft. Yes, thanks to 787's delay, JAL still has unfilled orders of 763's, a total of 9 of them as of March 31 2010. JAL will be the FIRST customer to install this new galley from TIMCO.

In case you have missed the press release from yesterday, Japan Airlines (JAL) will retire its entire 747-400 and A300-600 fleet by the end of this fiscal year. JAL has started the process of finding buyers for its plane a while back. And it has sold 9 of the 744's already. Any guess for how much JAL got from these?

(Update: Official press release is up on JAL website)

The previous post is getting too long. I am starting a new one for the domestic list. Below are the changes on Japan Airlines (JAL) domestic network according to the official press release.

(Update: Official press release is up on JAL website)

Ha I found the link to the official press release before JAL updated the PR site. It outlines the current restructuring plan including the list of routes to be suspended.

JAL will hold a press conference today to give an outline of its restructuring plan, including the planned route cuts. So far I haven't heard anything yet but bloomberg has an interesting article. Apparently they have received the press release before JAL released that to the public.

Yesterday I blogged about how local governments are stilling campaigning against Japan Airlines' (JAL) plan of route suspensions. Nikkei reports are bit more details of yesterday's meeting and JAL's current restructuring plan. Nikkei's report titled 'JAL's Rehab Could Be Delayed By Local Govt Opposition" says JAL has scrapped its extended route suspensions plan and the current plan is much closer to its original one.

Sankei reports that Japan Airlines (JAL) is expected to post an operating loss of 160 billion yen in the fiscal year ended in March, the largest loss since the merge with JAS.

It sucks to be one of the cities on Japan Airlines' (JAL) chopping block because losing the direct flights to the cities means a blow to the local economy. That's why the local governments don't give up and keep protesting against the planned suspensions. Officials from 16 Japanese prefectures had a meeting with JAL executives and on the other hand Hawaii Tourism Authority has started an online petition to save the Narita-Kona once daily flight. Doesn't look like they officials will give up until the very last minute.

Japan Transport Minister Maehara spoke at the House of Representatives today. He mentioned that Japan Airlines (JAL) might delay its restructuring plan court filing.

After disappearing from the media for a while, Japan Airlines' new CEO Dr. Inamori speaks up once again. During his first interview as JAL CEO, he said he refuses to cut more jobs or routes!

Japan Airlines (JAL) finally released the 2010 Golden Week (GW) traffic forecast (something I have been waiting for a while). In case you haven't heard of GW before, Japan has a 4 different national holidays from end of April till beginning of May every year, combining with weekend and that's the GW. This year there are 8 days of holiday from April 28 to May 5 (Geeze, I want to move to Japan just because of that LOL). So how is JAL doing during this one of the busiest travel periods in Japan? In a nutshell, JAL domestic flights are doing GREAT while international ones are doing okay too.

We all know the volcanic eruption in Iceland has caused flight cancelations in Europe. The weather condition seems to improve a bit now and Japan Airlines (JAL) has started resuming some European flights yesterday.

Congratulations! Japan Airlines (JAL) apparently has an operating profit in March! This is a big step in the right direction. Way to go JAL!

Back in early March, Japan Airlines (JAL) announced the early retirement program and aimed to recruit 2,700 employees to join the program. The application deadline was April 16 and JAL has successfully reached its goal, in fact it has far exceeded the 2,700 target!

Japanese Bankers Association Chairman Katsunori Nagayasu commented on the restructuring of Japan Airlines (JAL) yesterday during his last conference as chairman. He basically told the reporters that the banks have to be onboard with JAL's restructuring plan or there will be no more financial assistance given to JAL.

You probably have heard about the volcanic eruption in Iceland. The volcanic ash is spreading over Europe and it is affecting flight safety (Why? Check out BA9 incident. Basically it damages the engine, scratches the windshield and the ash cloud is not detected by weather radar!!!). Japan Airlines (#JAL) is therefore experiencing irregular operations on flights to and from Europe at the moment. JL401 (NRT-LHR) and JL411 (NRT-AMS) are returning to NRT, the returning ex-LHR and ex-AMS flights are "indefinite" at the moment. If you are flying to/from Europe, make sure you check JAL website for the latest flight information. You can also register for flight status update on your "View My Reservation" page!

Local governments were scrambling to keep their Japan Airlines (JAL) routes after Yomiuri Online released the list of international and domestic routes that are on the chopping board. Japanese and overseas local government are working with JAL and are hoping to save their routes from the cut. Meanwhile other airlines are eager taking over JAL's route :(

Diamond Online reveal's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's (MLIT) original JAL suspension plan. This was the plan drafted by MLIT back in February 22 2010 but was allegedly replaced by the rumored suspension list reported by Yomiuri. There were 46 international routes on the chopping board in the original plan vs only 29 in the new plan.

As a reminder, passengers flying to/from Haneda tomorrow might be affected by the temporary service suspension on Tokyo Monorail. They are going to finish some work to prepare for the Haneda internationalization in October. For details, you can refer to my previous post.

oneworld alliance held a summit at Los Angeles yesterday. Japan Airlines' (JAL) COO Masaru Onishi represents JAL. This is the first meeting after JAL reconfirmed its commitments to OW and JAL is one of the focuses on yesterday's summit. Kyodo interviewed Onishi at the summit and he made a couple of comments about recent rumors on JAL's restructuring plan including the one that fears me (and probably some other US/European travelers) most :)

JiJi.com reports that Japan Airlines (JAL) is planning to reduce frequency on 7 Narita routes from October, resulting a reduction of 40 weekly flights at NRT.

JAL supports Food Nippon Action once again with domestically produced rice flour strawberry roll cake. Image by Japan Airlines

Another new product from Japan Airlines (JAL) to support the Food Nippon Action, a movement to improve Japan's food self sufficient rate. Once again, JAL is cooperating with Mon Chou Chou, an Osaka based pastry store, to produce a domestically produced rice flour strawberry roll cake.

As reported earlier, Japan Airlines (JAL) plans to shut down its Osaka (Itami) and Fukuoka cabin attendant bases and move all cabin attendants to Tokyo in June. JAL's Cabin Crew Union (CCU) held a press conference yesterday and officially commented on this change. Of course, they are not happy about it.

Nikkei reports an update on Japan Airlines (JAL) layoff plan. According to Nikkei, JAL will cut around 16,500 staff by March 2011, 2 years ahead of schedule.

Japan Airlines (JAL) and Fuji Dream Airlines (FDA) first announced their intention to cooperate in January 2010. They reached their first code sharing agreement in Feburary to cover the Shizuoka routes withdrawn by JAL. Now both airlines have reached an agreement to expand their code sharing to include flights to Shinshu-Matsumoto Airport (MMJ), another airport JAL going to withdraw from on June 1 2010.

Japan Airlines (JAL) is once again cooperating with JTB this summer to develop new destinations for Japanese tourists. This summer, JAL and JTB are planning 14 charter flights to various destinations in Europe and all of the flights will be operated by 747-400 with 356-372 seats.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has uploaded its May inflight entertainment program listing. As expected, Avatar is still on the May program list and that's the only repeat from last month. Other movies include "Invictus". "Shutter Island", "Leap Year", etc. Below are the list of movies available on MAGIC-I and II.

Finally I found the rumored Japan Airlines (JAL) domestic suspension list from Yomiuri Online. According to the report, JAL will be shifting focus to Haneda. Currently JAL has 150 domestic routes and if JAL cuts all 31 routes listed, that means JAL is cutting 20% of its domestic network!

Yomiuri Online reports that Japan Airlines (JAL) will increase its international and domestic route suspensions.