Slow Golden Week Traffic for Japanese Carriers

The upcoming golden week will see a 5.6% decrease in passenger traffic for Japanese carriers particularly to long haul destinations owing to the poor alignment of national holidays mixed with the weekdays during this period. For this season, the number of passengers booked with the JAL Group and the ANA Group for the period between April 25th and May 6th totals 252,951 with an average load factor reaching 63.3%, indicating a drop of 2.2 percentage points. The number of available seats also went down by 2.2% to 399,868 compared to the same period last year.

Japan Airlines (JL) and JALways (JO), both under the JAL Group, will handle around 196,626 passengers, less than 6.5% than a year ago and the number of seats also dropped by 4.2% to 308,456. For the ANA Group, passenger traffic is at 57,474 down by 2% although seat capacity is up by 5.3% to 86,815 from 2007. Booking levels for the JAL Group and the ANA Group are still at level with last year’s figures at 63.7% and 62%, respectively.

Asian destinations except for China will show strong growth while long haul travel to destinations like North America and Europe will drop due to the shorter days available this year, according to both airline groups. The peak departure days will be April 26 and May 3.

Bookings for JAL Group and ANA Group:

Source: Travel Journal International Online at http://tji.tjnet.co.jp