JAL reports traffic forecast for New Year period

Business Dec. 15, 2012 - 06:13AM JST ( 2 )

TOKYO —

The JAL Group (JAL) on Friday estimated that a total of 401,928 passengers will be traveling on its international flights during the New Year vacation period from Dec 21 to Jan 6, 2013 based on current reservation figures. This is 10.2% more than the number of people who traveled to and from Japan during the same period last year and based on a 7.6% increase in the number of available seats.

Contributing to the capacity increase is the new Boston and San Diego routes which JAL launched in 2012 and there is a subsequent increase in passengers on the transpacific routes. Bookings also indicate a higher demand on routes to Europe and South East Asia compared to previous year. The overall load factor is two percentage points up against the same period last year, with flights to most regions above 83%. Additionally, JAL will operate 19 extra flights, both scheduled and charter, to Anchorage, Hawaii and Palau.

There are 1,280,582 passenger bookings for travel within Japan this holiday season with 1.7% fewer available seats compared to last year. The overall load factor on domestic flights improved six percentage points from previous year at the projection of 57.7% full. Flights to and from Hokkaido and Okinawa in particular, have notably higher load factors. JAL Group plans to also operate 12 additional domestic flights to meet demand on popular Okinawan routes.