Japan Airlines carried a total of 402,587 international passengers during the Japanese New Year vacation period from 25 December 2009 to 5 January 2010. Load factors on flights to most international regions showed considerable improvement due to substantial reductions in capacity.
Measured in available seat kilometers, total capacity on international routes was 21.1% less than the holiday period last year. The overall seat load factor at 83.6% is 8.9 percentage points higher than the previous period despite a decline of 11.8% in international passenger numbers. On their part, the troubled JAL Group operated 76 additional flights, both scheduled and charter, to such destinations as Guam, Honolulu, Cairns, Fairbanks, Siem Reap, Bali and more while on domestic routes, JAL decreased seat supply by 6.9% against the same period last year, transporting 1,327,578 domestic passengers, 7% down versus the number of passengers carried during the festive period a year before.
Overall load factor on domestic Japan flights was recorded at 2.1% points lower to stand at 63.3%. During this holiday period, JAL Group operated an additional 128 domestic flights to meet demand on popular routes in Japan, such as Tokyo – Miyazaki, and Tokyo – Kagoshima.
