TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Garuda Indonesia (GA) held a travel seminar jointly with INFINI TRAVEL INFORMATION on August 18, providing the latest tourism information to boost sales promotion in preparation for the start of daily flight operations between Tokyo Narita and Jakarta from September 1. In the Japanese market, the airline, serving Denpasar in Bali, gives a strong image of flying a resort route. Therefore, the airline considers it imperative to attract business traffic on its new Narita/Jakarta route. Hiroyuki Wada, Sales Manager Eastern Japan at Garuda Indonesia said, “It is indeed important to establish sales channels via travel agencies,” citing that Garuda strives to expand sales through the travel agencies by, first, familiarizing them with the airline’s in-flight service for business travelers.

Currently, Japan Airlines (JL) is the only carrier serving Jakarta from Narita. In January 2011, however, All Nippon Airways (NH) is also scheduled to start operating the same route. Indonesia enjoys a robust economy and, with many Japanese companies expanding their markets to the country, all three airlines expect to boost their business traffic. Although a stiffer market competition is foreseen among the airlines, Garuda Indonesia is confident of a successful operation, appealing its excellent connectivity with Indonesia’s domestic flight network and also its excellent passenger services. Garuda Indonesia is currently serving 16 destinations via Jakarta with airfares all common-rated from Tokyo Nartita. Garuda passengers can complete the entry procedures on board the flight before arriving, if the Indonesian visa fee is prepaid at Narita Airport.

Wada said that Garuda will strive to offer viable airfares and services while sharing information on business traffic trend and challenges for its business traffic strategy by joining forces with the travel agencies in the effort to sell the products based on the company’s philosophy “through the eyes of customers.” As far as the 9% agency commission is concerned, the airline said, it will maintain the same rate commission.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

Japan Airlines (JL) and All Nippon Airways (NH) announced on August 20 the revision made to the respective winter flight schedules for fiscal year 2010. JAL will reduce a weekly frequency of its Narita/Moscow route and will address downsizing of aircraft on the Narita/Incheon route and elsewhere while increasing the frequency between Narita and Delhi. The airline will see an introduction of First Class service on the Narita/Jakarta route. All the routes currently operated under JALways flight code (JO) will be operated under JAL flight code (JL) as from December 1 this year, with the planned unification of Japan Airlines International (JLI) and JALways (JO) in efforts to improve the operational efficiency.

Meanwhile, ANA decided to postpone its original plan to increase the frequency to two daily flights from Tokyo’s Haneda to Beijing and to Shanghai since the aviation talks between the two countries have not been completed. The airline, currently operating a daily scheduled charter flight to Beijing and Shanghai from Haneda Airport, will introduce larger aircraft to partly compensate for reduced capacity from its original flight plan. Boeing B767-300ER, presently put into service on these China routes, will be replaced with Boeing B777-200ER which will bring additional seats up to 72 seats to each flight.

Also, JAL will revise flight schedules on its Narita/Hanoi, Haneda/Singapore and Haneda/Honolulu routes. ANA will address aircraft downsizing and frequency reduction on some of its routes. ANA also decided to reopen its Narita/Jakarta route from January 7, 2011 and start the Narita/Manila service from February 27.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

The total number of international passengers carried by Japan Airlines (JL) and All Nippon Airways (NH) during the peak summer holiday season (August 6 – 15) declined by 5 percent year-on-year to 492,178. Consolidated seat capacity was reduced by 11.5 percent to 554,139 seats. Consequently, the average seat load factor improved by 6.55 percentage points to 88.7 percent.

By airline, JAL decreased its capacity offer by 17.7 percent to 365,056 seats while the passenger numbers declined by a smaller 11.9 percent to 325,498. The average seat load factor accordingly rose by 5.9 percentage points to 89.2 percent. By destination, the Oceania and Hawaii routes saw a traffic increase of 26.8 percent to 9,034 passengers and of 1.0 percent to 46,414 passengers respectively. In terms of seat load factor, the Hawaii, Oceania, Guam, Korea and China routes enjoyed a higher load factor year-over-year. Also, the airline had a vibrant growth in business class.

Read more…