The story
Prior to the airline's establishment, Suzuyo & Co., Ltd. signed a purchase agreement with Embraer on November 30, 2007 for two Embraer E170s for its startup airline, with a purchase right to acquire one additional aircraft. The contract value was estimated to be approximately US$87 million, if the purchase right was exercised. At that time, the yet-to-be-established airline was Embraer's second customer in Japan. Suzuyo later established the airline as Fuji Dream Airlines on June 24, 2008 with an initial capital of ¥450 million, with Yohei Suzuki serving as the airline's president and chief executive officer (CEO).
On October 27, 2008, Embraer received the type certification from the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) to operate the Embraer E170 in Japan, with Fuji Dream Airlines receiving its first Embraer E170 on February 20, 2009 as Embraer's second Japanese customer, following J-Air. On June 15, 2009, the contract between Embraer and the airline was amended, allowing for the airline to acquire the larger Embraer E175, which was delivered in January 2010.
The airline's inaugural flight occurred on July 23, 2009, with its initial operations consisting of two daily flights to Komatsu Airport and one daily flight each to Kagoshima and Kumamoto from its home base at Shizuoka Airport. On April 1, 2010, the airline commenced three daily flights between Matsumoto Airport to Fukuoka and one daily flight between Matsumoto and Sapporo Chitose, taking over the services of Japan Airlines (JAL) on the routes as part of a new codeshare agreement.
Fuji Dream's route network expanded further as the airline received new aircraft, including services from Shizuoka and Nagoya Airfield (Nagoya Komaki) to Fukuoka in October 2010, services from Nagoya Komaki to Kumamoto and from Shizuoka to Sapporo Chitose in March 2011, services from Nagoya Komaki to Aomori and Hanamaki in August 2011, and service between Fukuoka and Niigata in October 2011. In January 2013, the airline added Kōchi Airport as a new destination with services from Nagoya Komaki beginning in March 2013. In March 2014, the airline added Yamagata Airport as a new destination with services from Nagoya Komaki. In March 2015, the airline added new service to Izumo and Kitakyushu from Nagoya Komaki. In April 2016, the airline announced service to a second Sapporo airport, with flights to Okadama Airport from Shizuoka beginning in June 2016.
In January 2018, Fuji Dream Airlines announced routes from Izumo to both Shizuoka and Sendai Airport as a new destination, beginning in March and April 2018 respectively. During late 2019, the airline added new routes to Kobe Airport, with services from Izumo, Kochi, and Matsumoto.
From Wikipedia’s article on Fuji Dream Airlines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3
