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The story
Founding
Japan Airlines Co. was established on 1 August 1951, with the government of Japan recognising the need for a reliable air transportation system to help Japan recover in the aftermath of World War II. The airline was founded with an initial capital of ¥100 million; its headquarters were located in Ginza, Chūō, Tokyo. Between 27 and 29 of August, the airline operated invitational flights on a Douglas DC-3 Kinsei, leased from Philippine Airlines. On 25 October, Japan's first post-war domestic airline service was inaugurated, using a Martin 2-0-2 aircraft, named Mokusei, and crew leased from Northwest Orient Airlines subsidiary TALOA.
On 1 August 1953, the National Diet passed the Japan Airlines Company Act (日本航空株式会社法, Nihon Kōkū Kabushiki-gaisha Hō) forming a new state-owned Japan Airlines on 1 October, which assumed all assets and liabilities of its private predecessor. By 1953, the JAL network extended northward from Tokyo to Sapporo and Misawa, and westward to Nagoya, Osaka, Iwakuni, and Fukuoka.
On 2 February 1954, the airline began international flights, carrying 18 passengers from Tokyo to San Francisco on a Douglas DC-6B City of Tokyo via Wake Island and Honolulu. The flights between Tokyo and San Francisco are still Flights 1 and 2, to commemorate its first international service. The early flights were advertised as being operated by American crews and serviced by United Airlines in San Francisco.
The airline, in addition to the Douglas DC-3, Douglas DC-6B, and Martin 2-0-2s, operated Douglas DC-4s and Douglas DC-7Cs during the 1950s. JAL flew to Hong Kong via Okinawa by 1955, having pared down its domestic network to Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Sapporo. By 1958, the Hong Kong route had been extended to Bangkok and Singapore. With DC-7Cs, JAL was able to fly nonstop between Seattle and Tokyo in 1959.
Jet era
In 1960, the airline took delivery of its first jet, a Douglas DC-8 named Fuji, introducing jet service on the Tokyo-Honolulu-San Francisco route. JAL went on to operate a fleet of 51 DC-8s, retiring the last of the type in 1987. Fuji flew until 1974 and was then used as a maintenance training platform until 1989; its nose section was stored at Haneda Airport and eventually put on public display at the JAL Sky Museum in March 2014.
JAL also began flying to Seattle and Hong Kong in 1960. At the end of 1961, JAL had transpolar flights from Tokyo to Seattle, Copenhagen, London, and Paris via Anchorage, Alaska, and to Los Angeles and San Francisco via Honolulu, Hawaii.
During the 1960s, JAL flew to many new cities, including Moscow, New York, and Busan. DC-8 flights to Europe via Anchorage started in 1961; flights to Europe via India started in 1962, initially with Convair 880s. Under government pressure, Boeing 727s were acquired for domestic services in 1965 to allow the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau to issue an import license for All Nippon Airways' (ANA) own fleet of 727s.
By 1965, Japan Airlines was headquartered in the Tokyo Building in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Around this time, over half of JAL's revenue was generated on transpacific routes to the United States, and the airline was lobbying the United States for fifth freedom rights to fly transatlantic routes from the East Coast. The transpacific route was extended east from San Francisco to New York in November 1966 and to London in 1967; flights between San Francisco and London ended in December 1972.
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Between 1967 and 1969, JAL had an agreement with Aeroflot to operate a joint service between Tokyo and Moscow using a Soviet Tupolev Tu-114. The flight crew included one JAL member, and the cabin crew had five members each from Aeroflot and JAL. The weekly flight started in April 1967.
In 1972, under the 45/47 system (45/47体制, yongo-yonnana taisei), the so-called "aviation constitution" enacted by the Japanese government, JAL was granted flag carrier status to operate international routes. The airline was also designated to operate domestic trunk routes in competition with ANA and Toa Domestic Airlines.
The signing of a civil air transport agreement between China and Japan on 20 April 1974 caused the suspension of air routes between Taiwan and Japan on 21 April. A new subsidiary, Japan Asia Airways, was established on 8 August 1975, and air services between the two countries were restored on 15 September. During the 1970s, the airline bought the Boeing 747 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10 for its growing routes within Japan and to other countries.
In the 1980s the airline performed special flights for the Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko of Japan, Pope John Paul II, and Japanese prime ministers. Until the introduction of dedicated government aircraft two Boeing 747-400s operated as Japanese Air Force One and Japanese Air Force Two. During that decade, the airline introduced new Boeing 747-100SR, Boeing 747-SUD, and Boeing 767 jets to the fleet and retired the Boeing 727s and Douglas DC-8s.
In 1978, JAL started flights to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro via Anchorage and San Juan; The stopover was changed to Los Angeles in 1982 and to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1999. Until 2009, the airline operated fifth-freedom flights between New York and São Paulo and between Vancouver and Mexico City.
Deregulation and privatisation
Japan began considering airline deregulation in the late 1970s, with the government announcing the abandoning of the 45/47 system in 1985. In 1987, Japan Airlines was completely privatised, and the other two airlines in Japan, All Nippon Airways and Japan Air System, were permitted to compete with JAL on domestic and international routes. The increased competition resulted in changes to the airline's corporate structure, and it was reorganized into three divisions: international passenger service, domestic passenger service, and cargo (including mail) service. In 1988, JAL purchased a 7.5% shareholding in Air New Zealand. This was sold in 1994.
Japan Airlines began the 1990s with flights to evacuate Japanese citizens from Iraq before the start of the Gulf War. In October 1990, Japan Air Charter was established, and in September 1996, an agreement with the Walt Disney Company made Japan Airlines the official airline of Tokyo Disneyland. JAL Express was established in April 1997, with Boeing 737 aircraft. In the 1990s, the airline experienced economic difficulties that stemmed from recessions in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as a domestic downturn. Despite years of profits since 1986, the airline began to report operating losses in 1992. Cost-cutting, including the formation of the low-cost JAL Express domestic subsidiary and the transfer of tourist operations to JALways (the successor to Japan Air Charter), helped return the airline to profitability in 1999.
In 1997, the airline flew Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto to Peru to help negotiate in the Japanese embassy hostage crisis. Japan Airlines placed orders for Boeing 777s during the 1990s, allowing for fleet renewal. It was one of eight airlines participating in the Boeing 777 design process, shaping the design to their specifications.
In 2001, Japan Air System and Japan Airlines agreed to merge; and on 2 October 2002, they established a new holding company called Japan Airlines System (日本航空システム, Nihon Kōkū Shisutemu), forming a new core of the JAL Group. Aircraft liveries were changed to match the design of the new JAL Group. At that time, the merged group of airlines was the sixth largest in the world by passengers carried.
On 1 April 2004, JAL changed its name to Japan Airlines International and JAS changed its name to Japan Airlines Domestic. JAS flight codes were changed to JAL flight codes, JAS check-in desks were refitted in JAL livery, and JAS aircraft were gradually repainted. On 26 June 2004, the parent company Japan Airlines System was renamed to Japan Airlines Corporation.
Following the merger, two companies operated under the JAL brand: Japan Airlines International (日本航空インターナショナル, Nihon Kōkū Intānashonaru) and Japan Airlines Domestic (日本航空ジャパン, Nihon Kōkū Japan). Japan Airlines Domestic had primary responsibility for JAL's large network of intra-Japan flights, while JAL International operated both international and trunk domestic flights. On 1 October 2006, Japan Airlines International and Japan Airlines Domestic merged into a single brand, Japan Airlines International.
The airline applied to join Oneworld on 25 October 2005. Japan Airlines claimed that its Oneworld membership would be in the best interests of the airline's plans to further develop the airline group and its strong commitment to providing the very best to its customers. Japan Airlines, together with Malév and Royal Jordanian, joined the alliance on 1 April 2007.
On 1 April 2008, JAL merged the operations of its subsidiary Japan Asia Airways (JAA) into JAL mainline operations. JAA had operated all JAL group flights between Japan and Taiwan between 1975 and 2008 as a separate entity due to the special political status of Taiwan.
2008 financial crisis and bankruptcy
In 2009, Japan Airlines suffered steep financial losses, despite remaining Asia's largest airline by revenue. As a result, the airline embarked on staff cuts and route cutbacks in an effort to reduce costs. The carrier also received ¥100 billion through capital injection and credit from the Japanese government as part of the proposed bankruptcy. In September 2009, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism formed a task force aimed at aiding a corporate turnaround at JAL, which examined various cost-cutting and strategic partnership proposals. Haruka Nishimatsu, the president and CEO of JAL, already known for eschewing many executive perks, cut his salary to the same amount that JAL pilots were earning during the financial crisis.
One proposal considered was to merge JAL with ANA, which would create a single larger international airline and replace Japan Airlines International; however, media reports suggested that ANA would oppose this proposal given its comparatively better financial performance as an independent carrier. The task force also examined possible partnerships with foreign carriers.
After weeks of speculation, JAL applied for protection under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law (the Japanese equivalent of Administration in the United Kingdom or a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the United States) on 19 January 2010. JAL would receive a ¥300 billion cash injection and have debts worth ¥730 billion waived, in exchange for which it will cut its capital to zero, cut unprofitable routes and reduce its workforce by 15,700 employees—a third of its 47,000 total. JAL's main creditors (Mizuho Corporate Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) originally objected to the bankruptcy declaration, but changed their positions after the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation of Japan recommended court protection, according to a senior bank official. Shares of JAL were delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on 20 February 2010. At a time, its stock was considered one of "bluest of blue chips" of Japan. At the time, the bankruptcy was the largest Japanese bankruptcy involving a non-financial company and the fourth largest in Japan's history.
Kazuo Inamori, founder of Kyocera and KDDI, took over as CEO of JAL. Transport minister Seiji Maehara personally visited Kyocera headquarters in late 2009 to persuade Inamori to accept the position; task force leader Shinjiro Takagi believed that appointing a proven entrepreneur CEO was necessary to fix the various problems at JAL. Japan Air Commuter president Masaru Onishi was promoted to president of JAL.
In May, JAL began to see an increase in its passenger numbers by 1.1% year-on-year. In August, it was reported that JAL would cut 19,133 jobs from its workforce of 47,000 by the end of March 2015 – whilst also increasing capacity – in an attempt to make the business viable.
Although JAL ultimately exited bankruptcy while remaining in the Oneworld alliance, JAL was seriously considering accepting a strategic investment from Delta Air Lines and joining the SkyTeam alliance during the period between September 2009 and February 2010. JAL also had talks with Skyteam members Air France-KLM and Korean Air regarding their potential involvement.
The Delta deal was favored by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism because Delta had an extensive global network and had the largest Japanese operation of any foreign airline, which it had inherited through its merger with Northwest Airlines. MLITT also supported a transaction with Air France-KLM because it was a "healthier company" than American.
American planned to team up with Oneworld alliance members British Airways and Qantas to make a joint offer to recapitalise JAL. British Airways said that it was attempting to persuade JAL to remain part of Oneworld rather than aligning itself with Delta and SkyTeam, while American CEO Gerard Arpey said that American and Oneworld remained committed to a partnership with Japan Airlines, as long as it remained a major international carrier, and reiterated his encouragement for JAL to stay with Oneworld during ceremonies to welcome Mexicana into the alliance.
In an interview with the Asahi Shimbun on 1 January 2010, JAL president Haruka Nishimatsu stated his preference in forming a partnership with Delta over American, and the Yomiuri Shimbun reported shortly thereafter that JAL and the Japanese government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation would likely choose to form a business and capital tie-up with Delta, as part of which JAL would enter SkyTeam and reduce its international flight operations in favor of code-share agreements with Delta, and that American Airlines had begun procedures to end negotiations with JAL. Both JAL and American denied the report. The Wall Street Journal then reported that American Airlines raised its JAL investment offer by $300 million, to $1.4 billion, and in separate comments to the press, Delta president Ed Bastian said that Delta was "willing and able to raise additional capital through third-party resources."
After JAL filed for bankruptcy, there were further media reports that JAL would leave Oneworld in favour of SkyTeam, but JAL president Masaru Onishi said on 1 February that the new JAL leadership was "seriously reviewing the issue from scratch, without being influenced by previous discussions," and its decision on an alliance partner would be made soon.
On 7 February, several news outlets reported that JAL would decide to keep its alliance with American Airlines and end talks with Delta. Inamori and ETIC officials, according to the reports, decided that switching alliances from Oneworld to Skyteam would be too risky and could hinder JAL's ability to turn around quickly. Two days later, JAL officially announced that it would strengthen its partnership with American, including a joint application for antitrust immunity on transpacific routes. The airline would also fortify its relationship with other partners in the Oneworld alliance.
Relisting and re-expansion
JAL emerged from bankruptcy protection in March 2011. In July, ETIC selected Nomura Holdings, Daiwa Securities, MUFG Bank, Morgan Stanley, Mizuho Securities, SMBC, and Nikko Securities to underwrite the sale of its equity stake in JAL, without specifying amounts or dates. On 6 January 2012, JAL announced its intent to relist its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in an initial public offering (IPO) of up to ¥1 trillion, which would be the largest offering in Japan in more than a year. The airline completed its IPO on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO: 9201) on 19 September 2012. The Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation of Japan sold all its holdings (96.5%) in JAL for ¥650 billion, greater than its ¥350 billion investment in 2010.
Following its exit from bankruptcy protection, JAL began several new partnerships within the Oneworld alliance. The transpacific joint venture between JAL and American commenced in April 2011. JAL formed Jetstar Japan, a low-cost carrier joint venture with Qantas subsidiary Jetstar Airways, in July. In 2012, JAL and British Airways parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) submitted applications to the Japanese government and European Union respectively in seeking a joint venture business operation for flights between Japan and Europe. Finnair applied to join the JV with IAG in July 2013, in conjunction with JAL starting new nonstop service to Helsinki.
COVID-19 pandemic
Between 2020 and 2021, Japan Airlines incorporated numerous safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Japan Airlines undertakes JAL FlySafe hygiene measures to prevent the spread of the virus, to provide all Japan Airlines guests with a safe and secure travel experience. Measures taken by Japan Airlines to protect guests and keep them safe from infection include face masks and face guards worn by airport staff, disinfecting areas around seats, including tables, armrests, screens, and controllers, and sanitizing frequently touched surfaces, such as lavatory doorknobs and faucet handles.
On June 18, 2021, Japan airlines announced it had conducted the first flight with loading two different types of Sustainable Aviation Fuel produced domestically in Japan. The flight was directed from Tokyo (Haneda) to Sapporo (Shin-Chitose) and used 3,132 litters (9.1% mixing ratio) of SAF sourced from wood chips and from microalgae. It was the first flight in the world to use biofuel derived from gasified wood chips and to mix two different types of biofuels.
In May 2023, JAL announced its intention to reintroduce dedicated cargo service using Boeing 767-300BCF aircraft converted from its passenger fleet. This service is planned to begin in early 2024. The company retired its previous fleet of Boeing 747 freighters in 2011.
Recent events
In February 2026, Qantas announced it will exit its 33.3% stake in Jetstar Japan by July 2026, ending its 14-year joint venture with Japan Airlines and Tokyo Century. The low-cost carrier will rebrand by June 2027.
From Wikipedia’s article on Japan Airlines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5