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JUNE 2025

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Japan Airlines an exception to the supply chain shortage

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June 1st 2025

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At a time when global supply chain disruptions have delayed deliveries of new aircraft and components worldwide, Japan Airlines (JAL) has been the exception to the rule. Read More »

“We have the same suppliers so we had the same issues, but we do not have any aircraft on the ground. We had a buffer supply of spare parts; particularly we maintained that in Japan, so we have not had that time lag between ordering and receiving. No aircraft on the ground,” Japan Airlines senior vice president route marketing, Ross Leggett, told Orient Aviation in June at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) 81st AGM and World Air Transport Summit in Delhi.

“We were in a lucky time with Japan in general. We planned well with aircraft orders. We planned well in advance so we had a long delivery period, which tends to be more reliable than shorter term deliveries,” he said.

“Our maintenance guys do a fantastic job. They have predictive maintenance as well. I think we are quite advanced in that.

“They look at the maintenance logs and they know what will come up and replace parts in advance.”

Its proactive approach to planning is highlighted by JAL’s recent decision to postpone the retirement of some of its 777-300ERs.

“It is more like an insurance policy that we have. We know A350-1000 deliveries. We think they are on track. Maybe one month, two months late, but on track,” Leggett said.

“The domestic orders are basically on track as well. We have concerns about the 787- 9s. We have not yet been told they will be delayed, but everyone in the world is having delivery delays. In case that does happen, we want to be sure of capacity, so we extended the 777s.”

In the post-COVID pandemic reality, JAL has recovered, but that does not mean returning to the 2019 status quo, Leggett said.

“Well it is a mixed story. We have just announced our financial results (on May 2), and we were able to increase revenue and profits. We exceeded our targets on profits, which was great, and we have actually increased dividends to our shareholders,” he said.

'Affluent people with money are increasing, but I do not think it will be a huge increase. The really growing market in Japan and non-Japan point of sale is LCCs'

“The constitution of profit is quite different, though. There was more profit coming from international routes, less from domestic. Cargo increased. LCCs increased.”

He said the new profit structure might be permanent. “The changes we are seeing internationally, the inbound market to Japan, so no-Japan point of sale, has increased incredibly. Japan’s point of sales recovered versus the previous year, but it is still not near where we were in 2019,” he said.

“The Japan market is gradually increasing but I don’t think it will back to 2019 levels until the yen stabilizes a lot more. It peaked at 160. It is about 142 at the moment. It needs to get down to mid-130s just to stimulate traffic, so it’s a change, a paradigm change.”

Can the new paradigm be an opportunity? “Yes, definitely,” Leggett said. “As we made a record profit, we are very happy with where we are. It means our approach to sales and our approach to business makes a change.

‘So the international focus and the non-Japan point of sale focus are increasing. Japan is and still will be our biggest market, so we continue to focus on both.

“The biggest market at the moment is America. Trans-Pacific routes continue to be huge for us. Our mid-term plan is to increase traffic from North America and Asia to Japan and also North America through traffic.”

May this translate into new destinations? “I would like to expand. We just launched an additional flight to Chicago. I think midterm, so two to three years, we will keep expanding in North America,” Leggett said.

“We will expand throughout Asia if we can. India is a very important market for us; a big and growing market as well.”

One post-pandemic trend for airlines worldwide and pinpointed in the IATA Global Passenger Survey (GPS) 2024 Report, is the emergence of the new demographic group of young travelers.

“From my main lines I do not see that a lot,” Leggett said. “Japanese travelers still have not come back to 2019 levels.

“We do see big increases in young families and younger travelers on LCC airlines. For ZIPAir, we see an increase and it is very successful in capturing non-Japanese point of sale, young and price-conscious travelers. Similarly for Jetstar Japan,” he said.

“Jetstar Japan can capture the young tourist group. Spring Japan also can from China, particularly for Mainland origin traffic and young people.”

Leggett said JAL’s LCC subsidiaries - ZIPAir, Jetstar Japan and Spring Japan - are “very important” for JAL Group’s development.

“We see a lot of capacity growth in the LCC market. The full-service carrier division we have is very successful, but the demographic of Japan is not increasing,” he said.

ZIPAir is operating a refurbished fleet of 787s formerly part of JAL’s mainline fleet. “We have eight aircraft at the moment. We are receiving two more in the next year. Long-term plans are to expand to 20 aircraft,” said Leggett.

'As an industry, and probably mid to long term, we will probably have to do things more efficiently and be less reliant on people doing things but never change the service levels'

Utilizing the 787s allows the LCC to plan long-haul operations. “ZIP flies to Houston and the U.S. west coast. Houston is a two aircraft operation,” he said.

“Trans-Pacific would be where the LCC’s market will continue to expand.”

For mainline JAL operations, the big milestone has been the introduction of the A350-1000 as the airline’s new flagship aircraft.

“It is incredibly popular with passengers. It is really state of the art. We are very happy with it,” Leggett said, and added the wide-body is good for JAL’s operations.

“We are enjoying higher load factors than other aircraft because it is very popular. It also is a very efficient aircraft. We have not had any operational problems.”

The road to JAL’s post-pandemic recovery has not been without challenges. One of them is the Russia-Ukraine war and the resulting closure of Russian airspace.

“European operations, especially to Finland before the closure of Siberia, used to be JAL’s closest European gateway,” he said.

“We have reduced capacity to Helsinki. If we could fly over Russia, we would resume the full service. It is an additional three hours of flying time now. It is not just a fuel issue. It is the cabin and cockpit crew. Monthly flying time increases so much,” Leggett said.

Domestically, JAL has to deal with the ground handling labor shortage. “In general, after COVID, young people found airport work not as attractive as it used to be. Long hours and difficult times and also many people retired. So recruiting new staff was difficult,” he said.

“We have been successful in the last year or so and we also have recruited an overseas workforce. We have staff from Nepal, Vietnam and Indonesia.”

Cabin crew recruitment is on track. “The pilot situation is as difficult as it is for everyone. We have sufficient pilots to operate our airplanes, but if we needed to change plans, or if something like Ukraine happens again when we have to add three hours of flying to Europe again, that would put us under strain with resources. At the moment, we are on track,” Leggett said.

He believes airlines will need to look to technology in some operations to be less reliant on a workforce.

 “Aviation is about people traveling and traveling will always be part of our dreams. Attracting people to the industry is going to be challenging. Doing things more efficiently, having more technology involved in our booking processes and transactions. It is one of our ways through.”

So far, JAL has not been impacted by U.S. president Donald Trump’s planned tariffs. “If I look at my current booking trends and the further booking curve, I don’t see any changes compared with previous years other than increases,” he said.

“So there is nothing I can identify as negative from the tariffs. They have not started yet so we have to monitor the situation closely. Potentially of course they could have impact,” Leggett said.

“At this point, there is little airlines can do to prepare for the potential impact of tariffs. I don’t think we can. With cargo we all saw an uptick in exports to the U.S.

“Preparing for something we can’t see and we don’t know is difficult. We are a little bit more fortunate in that the inbound market to Japan is great, so with the weaker yen, travel from the U.S. to Japan is still increasing.”

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