Another part of Jetstar took to the air today with Jetstar Japan commencing service.
Jetstar Japan operated flight GK111 from Tokyo Narita to Sapporo successfully, and thus joins the Jetstar family in the Asia/Pacific/Australasia region. For those keeping up that’s:
- Jetstar (Australia and New Zealand)
- Jetstar Asia (Singapore, also incorporating Valueair)
- Jetstar Pacific (Vietnam)
Jetstar Japan operates Airbus A320’s with a total of 3 planes in the fleet so far.
For Qantas, it’s good news as Jetstar seems to be one of the bits of the airline that actually makes money (compared to Qantas’s International Division).
Jetstar Japan is owned by Qantas (33.3%), Japan Airlines (33.3%), Mitsubishi Corp (16.7%), and Century Tokyo Leasing Corporation (16.7%), and with those shareholders working together, the launch has been quicker than most of them anticipated (from less than 12 months ago, and the actual commencement of service 5 months early).
How the airline gets on will be in the face of competition will be interesting with ANA, JAL attacking from the top, Peach Aviation, Air DO, and Skymark attacking from the bottom, with Air Asia Japan starting service on the 1st August 2012.
Additional, it’ll be interesting to see who poaches what from the two big airlines – remember JAL own part of Jetstar Japan, whilst ANA own part of Peach and Air Asia Japan – will the price of LCC’s be the decimation of the older JAL/ANA regional networks?
The low cost carrier for Japan is really hotting up now…..