JAL international traffic drops 20%
Following 12 months of upheaval, Japan Airlines (JAL) carried 20.2% fewer passengers on international routes in the 2011-12 financial year than it did in the previous 12 months.
In results released today, JAL revealed that it had carried just 6.84 million international passengers in the year to 31 March 2012, as a result of corporate restructuring and the 11 March 2011 natural disasters. This was partially offset however, by a 16.8% reduction in capacity, allowing average cabin load factors to remain above 70%.
JAL’s routes to Oceania were among the hardest hit, seeing 35.5% fewer passengers, while traffic on routes to and from North America (-24,3%), South Korea (-25.3%) also suffered.
On domestic routes, JAL carried 28.97 million passengers in 2011-12, 13.1% down year-on-year. This was largely in line with the airline’s capacity cuts however, keeping load factors at a stable, albeit weak 62.7%.