Japan Air Lines Hopes to Conclude Merger Talks Soon
Struggling Japan Airlines Corp. said Tuesday it aims to conclude tie-up talks with foreign carriers by mid-October and announced plans to slash 14 percent of its workers under a major restructuring plan.
Delta Air Lines Inc., the world’s biggest airline operator, and its rival American Airlines are vying to buy a stake in JAL, which incurred its biggest-ever quarterly net loss of 99 billion yen ($1 billion) in the three months to June.
Haruka Nishimatsu, president of Asia’s biggest airline, known as JAL, said the 6,800 job cuts would be carried out over three years and be completed in the fiscal year ending March 2012.
He declined to give further details including the ongoing negotiations with foreign airlines.
Apart from the U.S. carriers, the cash-strapped Japanese airline is reportedly in talks with Air France-KLM, Europe’s biggest airline group, and Korean Air Lines Co. over capital injections.
JAL, battered by the downturn in global air travel, has forecast a net loss of 63 billion yen for the current fiscal year to March 2010. It plans to cut flights and slash costs by 53 billion yen during the current fiscal year and another 100 billion yen in the next fiscal year.
Nishimatsu met Tuesday with a panel of experts set up by the Japanese transport ministry, which is supervising JAL’s restructuring. JAL was privatized in 1987.
Nishimatsu told the panel that it would sharply reduce the number of international flights and cut personnel costs, said transport ministry official Hideto Orihara.
JAL told the panel that it was “exploring various options” to improve its business, according to Orihara, who attended the meeting. He declined to give further details.
The Japanese airline is expected to announce its management improvement plan by the end of September.
Japan’s business daily Nikkei said Saturday that Delta has offered to invest as much as 50 billion yen ($550 million), which would give it a 11.2 percent stake in JAL.
Under Japan’s aviation law, foreigners can own up to one-third of a Japanese airline, Orihara said.
9/15/2009 7:14 AM SHINO YUASA, Associated Press Writer TOKYO
Japan Airlines hopes to receive capital contributions from Delta Air Lines or American Airlines and form a tie-up on international flight operations with the U.S. airline. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)