TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Skymark airlines (headquarters in Ota ward, Tokyo) formally announced on February 6 that it has decided to introduce daily flight to Ibaraki airport in Omitama, Ibaraki Prefecture from its Kobe base with effect from April 16. This was after months of having no domestic carriers willing to mount regular flight using this new airport, classified as Tokyo’s secondary airport and aiming to attract low cost carriers.

Skymark airlines will be the second airline after South Korean carrier Asiana Airlines to choose Ibaraki airport which will open next month on March 11. Skymark airlines had earlier agreed to conduct commemorative flights on the airport’s opening day with two flights from Kobe to Ibaraki, one flight from Ibaraki to Kobe and one flight from Ibaraki to Haneda. Tickets on all 4 flights were sold out a few days after release.

Skymark airlines has also released its ticket prices with normal one-way adult airfare going at 12,000yen, and early purchase discounted airfare will range from 5,800yen to 9,800yen. Flight will most likely depart in the morning and will operate on its single fleet of Boeing B737-800 aircraft with a seating capacity of 177 single class passengers.

Skymark Airlines (headquarters in Ōta-ward, Tokyo), a Japanese low-cost start-up that began operations in 1998 following after deregulation, is likely to report a profit for this fiscal year despite its big Japanese competitors and full-fledge carriers ANA and JAL, reported making heavy losses.

Skymark Airlines as an independent carrier could well weather the economic downturn, by using its lean model of business and cost reduction measures, operates just one single fleet of 12 Boeing 737-800s, common with many low-cost carriers. It used to operate a small number of Boeing 767-300s, but due to its higher seating capacity resulting in lower fuel efficiency as well as requiring more passengers to break even, were disposed of from its fleet eventually.

Skymark Airlines latest expansion was to make Kobe a secondary base, after Haneda. It has recently started a new route in December from its base at Kobe operating twice-daily flight to Okinawa. It also has announced to conduct daily flights between Kobe and Fukuoka began this month on February 1st. It is aiming to develop Kobe Airport into a regional hub by 2014, adding new routes from Kobe to Sapporo, Sendai, Matsuyama, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Naha.

Skymark Airlines has at the request of Ibaraki Airport to commence regular flight service using this newly built airport that is scheduled for opening in a few week’s time. Skymark Airlines has decided at the opening day of Ibaraki Airport on March 11 to conduct commemorative flights, 2 flight leaving from Kobe to Ibaraki, 1 flight each leaving from Ibaraki to Kobe and Haneda making a total of 4 flights on that day. Reservations for the commemorative flights started in January 30, and all 177 seats on all the flights were sold out in a few weeks after released. It is still considering whether to operate regular service using this airport.

Skymark Airlines market share in Japan.

Following the “scrutiny” of ministries’ budget requests for the fiscal year 2010, Government Revitalization Unit decided on November 16 “to freeze” the subsidy, among others, for Kansai International Airport in the amount of 16 billion yen. The purpose of scrutiny by Government Revitalization Unit is to identify and reduce wasteful ministry budget spending for the fiscal year 2010. Specifically, with regards to the subsidy for Kansai International Airport, the panel casted doubt on the effectiveness of the budget spending on its management improvement and, consequently, decided to freeze the subsidy until after a drastic solution is implemented on the three airport-operations including Osaka’s Itami Airport and Kobe Airport.

Until last year, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) paid the subsidy every year to Kansai International Airport in the amount of nine billion yen. For the fiscal year 2010, MLIT requested additional seven billion yen, totaling 16 billion yen to give a financial support to Kansai International Airport Co., Ltd (KIAC), laden with interest-bearing debt exceeding 1000 billion yen. In response to the subsidy frozen, Shinichi Fukushima, KIAC President & CEO, said that it is extremely regrettable, adding that the subsidy is indeed indispensable for Kansai International Airport to strengthen its international competitiveness which is directly connected with the growth strategy of the country. Should the subsidy not be granted, Fukushima stressed, the airport’s positioning would be in “an extremely grave situation” amid the fierce competitions with those international hub airports in East Asia.

Meanwhile, Toru Hashimoto, Governor of Osaka Prefecture, issued a comment that the freeze on the subsidy would be, in the long run, good for KIAC, welcoming the decision by Government Revitalization Unit. Should “stopgapping funding measure without a specific strategy” be frozen, continued Hashimoto, it should actually help promote in-depth discussion on a strategy for Kansai International Airport including role-sharing between three airports in Kansai. Then, he went on to indicate his idea time and again that Osaka’s Itami Airport be scrapped and Kansai International Airport be connected by a linear motor train with a heart of Osaka. By demonstrating such a strategy, MLIT would win public understanding in providing KIAC the subsidy as a transitional measure, he remarked.

On the other hand, if the subsidy, even with the strategy spelled out, should fail to be approved, Governor Hashimoto stressed that there would be no other way left for Kansai International Airport Co, Ltd than filing for bankruptcy, adding that Osaka Prefectural Government would “totally stop” injection of tax payers’ money into Kansai International Airport.

Source: Travel Vision

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