Asian carrier halts hundreds of flights

TOKYO - Agence France-Presse

AirAsia Japan has said the budget carrier will cancel hundreds of flights over two months before it ceases operations under the current brand. AFP Photo

AirAsia Japan has said the budget carrier will cancel hundreds of flights over two months before it ceases operations under the current brand at the end of October.

AirAsia Japan, operated jointly by Malaysia-based AirAsia and major Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA), will suspend 14 daily flights from September 1 to October 26, according to a company statement.
The carrier said the cancellations, which will reportedly affect 14,000 passengers, was because of a lack of planes to service all its routes.

The affected routes include flights linking Seoul to the central Japanese city of Nagoya and Tokyo to the northern city of Sapporo. The carrier will cease operations by the end of October, just over a year after it started flying out of Tokyo’s Narita airport in August.

Announcing the dissolution of AirAsia Japan in June, the Malaysian carrier cited a “fundamental difference of opinion between its shareholders on how the business should be managed, from cost management to where the domestic business operations should be based”.

ANA however said the venture dissolved because it was not well known in Japan and could not register profits. The Japanese carrier plans to launch a new budget brand in November.