Japan Airlines to reduce frequency to New Delhi from July

Asia's largest airline operator and Japan's flag carrier, Japan Airlines (JAL), has said it will reduce the frequency of its services in the Asia region from 1 July 2009. It said this was a temporary measure resulting from poor demand for air travel in the current global recessionary environment.

In a statement the airline said it would ''strive to improve profitability by adjusting capacity.''

The airline announced that the number of weekly flights to Incheon (Seoul) and New Delhi from Narita International Airport in Tokyo as well as flights from Osaka (Kansai Airport) to Shanghai (Pudong) and Incheon (Seoul) would be reduced for a short period till the end of October 2009.

It also said it will maintain the reduced frequency of flights on routes to Beijing, Shanghai (Pudong), Hong Kong and Taipei. The flight frequencies on these routes had been reduced for a period from March 2009 to June 2009 and will now be extended further from 1 July 2009.

It will reduce the number of round-trip flights between Narita International Airport and Beijing from 19 flights a week to 14 flights a week between 1 August 2009 and 24 October 2009.

The number of weekly services between Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Seoul will be cut from 28 to 21 between July 2009 and 24 October 2009.

The airline statement said that for customers who have already made reservations on flights that are subject to the changes, alternative flights of Japan Airlines with different timings would be provided.

The Japan Airlines Group is the largest airline group in Asia in terms of sales revenues and the second biggest in Asia in terms of passengers carried annually.

The JAL Group, according to the company, serves 216 airports in 34 countries and territories, including 60 airports in Japan.

Japan Airlines is a member of the Oneworld global airline alliance.