JAL may discontinue Kansai-Heathrow flights by March
TOKYO —
Japan Airlines is considering abolishing flights between Kansai International Airport in western Japan’s Osaka Prefecture and Heathrow Airport in London by March 2009, it was learned Thursday. The move is part of the company’s plan to streamline its flight operations in response to surging fuel costs, the sources said.
JAL currently operates a round-trip flight a day between Kansai and Heathrow. The service has suffered low profitability due to weak demand from business users.
The withdrawal of JAL will leave no long-distance international flights offered by Japanese air carriers at Kansai International Airport. All Nippon Airways already terminated its flights between Kansai and European destinations in November 2000.
As for domestic services, JAL plans to scrap flights between Central Japan International Airport in Aichi Prefecture and Fukuoka Airport in southern Japan by March 2009, the sources said.
The airline also plans to abolish flights connecting Fukushima Airport in northeastern Japan with Osaka International Airport, Kansai International Airport and Naha Airport. The Fukushima-Naha route is operated by a JAL subsidiary.
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Speed
I think all those "little" municipalities that built unnecessary airports are going to be hurting. Have any of you been to Kobe Airport? Jesus, talk about waiting for a plane to come by! About one an hour! You can almost see Kansai Airport from there, too.
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berri_fusion
LOL!@ Speed.
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Statistician
The prices JAL charges I'm surprised anyone can afford to fly with them.
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LIBERTAS
"I think all those "little" municipalities that built unnecessary airports are going to be hurting." AND they've learned absolutely nothing. Shizuoka-ken is about to open Mt. Fuji-Shizuoka International Airport. One of the reasons the cited for building it was that they could ship strawberries to China on the same day they are picked. What is it now? 90 airports and counting nationwide? With two or three flights a day? At what cost? One flight to Okinawa, one to Chitose and one to Pusan daily. All the others will be charter on demand. But, an old lady died of starvation on the very steps of Hamamatsu City Hall about two months ago, but there was "no money available" for welfare payments to her, they said. But we got lotsa cash for "Airports for Strawberries!" Japan, beautiful on the outside, Armageddon on the inside! With our tax money! (And there's a joke in the air-traffic control community about Kansai, Kobe and Atami airports. The controllers can see each at their desks other with binoculars!)
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zurcronium
JetStar is canceling their Osaka-Australia trips now too, as of December. Kansai airport will be at the Kobe level soon. Does not matter as soon it will be underwater anyway. But why are they building a second runway at Kansai now? Are the politicians so corrupt they just dont care about the massive waste of a second runway that wont get used?
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wilbur
zurcronium: yes
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delitachan
Wow sadness...so many airlines pulling out of Kansai airport. ATM there's little American routes which has me worried because I need to fly there to get to my b/f's home in Shiga. The airlines already pulled the Nagoya route too :(.
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RepublicofTexas
The airport construction boom seems to closely resemble another useless, wasteful project (the roads).
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RepublicofTexas
However I think Yokota airbase should be converted into a civilian airport to serve Yokohama. It takes people forever to get from Narita or even Haneda to western Tokyo or eastern Kanagawa.
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cwhite
from Central Yokohama it would be much quicker to get to Haneda than Yokoto airbase.
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Pukey2
Rightly said. We have all the airports around the country, and yet Tokyo doesn't have a decent airport 'nearby'. They're going to have more international flights from Haneda, but how many can they fit and will flights ever go to far-off destinations? Narita wouldn't be half as bad, if there were quick and cheap modes of transport.
For those who have been to nearby Nanki-Shirahama airport will know that there are probably only 3 flights per day.
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realist
Japan is closing down.
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RepublicofTexas
True but Haneda's already overcrowded unlike a lot of these new useless airports
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RepublicofTexas
(from wikipedia) "The Narita Rapid Railway, scheduled to open in 2010, will alleviate the problem to some extent by shaving 20 minutes off the travel time. It has been announced that new Skyliner express trains with a maximum speed of 160 km/h will travel on this new line between Tokyo's Nippori Station and Airport Terminal 2 Station in 36 minutes, which compares favourably with other major airports worldwide. Improvements such as the Wangan Expressway have shaved off travel time to Kanagawa Prefecture by bypassing Tokyo."
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KissMint
As for the Narita Rapid Railway... at what cost? the Narita Express and limousine bus cost around 3000 yen + each
I'd rather pay that much to ship my bags to the airport and then take the local (around 1000 yen).
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