JAL, American Airlines to begin joint business in April

Japan Airlines and its partner American Airlines said yesterday they would start their revenue-sharing joint business on trans-Pacific flights in April.

The venture includes the alignment of their 2011 summer schedules effective from March 27, expanded code-sharing and the introduction of common fares, JAL president Masaru Onishi told reporters.

The announcement follows approval by the US and Japanese authorities last year of antitrust immunity for the proposed joint trans-Pacific operations.

Mr Onishi said the new cooperation would improve the carriers’ revenue by a combined 13 billion yen ($156.4 million) for the initial year.

“We had set separate fares as American has been a competing rival while being a partner. But in this joint business, we will make them (the fares) common” between both carriers, Mr Onishi told reporters.

The joint business will apply to non-stop flights on 10 trans-Pacific routes initially, including those linking Tokyo to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Vancouver and those linking Chicago to Beijing and Shanghai.

JAL and American announced commemorative trans-Pacific economy-class airfare reductions for sale in Japan from Tuesday for travel between February 1 and March 31.

“Historically, routings involving both airlines were typically only available at much higher fare levels,” they noted.

The carriers are offering a 69,000 yen round trip between Tokyo and San Francisco or Los Angeles, much lower than prices of up to 249,000 yen currently charged for a traveller flying to the United States on JAL and returning on American.

JAL declared bankruptcy in January 2010 owing $26 billion in one of Japan’s biggest-ever corporate failures, but has continued flying while it goes through a rehabilitation process under court protection.

It chose to stay with its alliance with American Airlines and its “oneworld” partners rather than switch to Delta Air Lines, the world’s largest airline, and its fellow members in the SkyTeam grouping.

Both of the giant US carriers had competed to partner with ailing JAL, hoping to benefit from a new US-Japan “open skies” deal to expand their reach in the lucrative Asia-Pacific aviation market.