Society

JAL's LCC gears up for long-distance flights

Dec 20 (NHK) - Japan Airlines is stretching its wings in the low cost carrier market. A new subsidiary, Zipair Tokyo, starts operations next year. And the company is promising long distance services at budget prices.

Regular flights commence in May, connecting Tokyo's Narita airport with Bangkok followed soon after by a service to Seoul. The long-term plan is to add routes to North America.

Zipair is using a Boeing 787 Dreamliner to go the extra distance.

No prizes for guessing how the airline will keep costs down, it has squeezed in an extra row of seats 290 in all. That includes 18 premium seats that lie flat.

President of Zipair Tokyo , Shingo Nishida, said "We predict passenger traffic between Japan , the rest of Asia, and North America will keep growing in the future. We want to play a role in that trend".

Competition in Japan's LCC market is heating up, Peach Aviation, a group company of All Nippon Airways, plans to open a route to Southeast Asia within the next year or so.

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