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AirAsia to shut down Japan operations

Oct 06 (NHK) - Low-cost carrier AirAsia Japan says it will discontinue all of its flight routes and close down operations in the country. It says it cannot expect a recovery in passenger demand because of the impact of Covid-19.

The airline says all four of its routes will be abolished on December 5. It operates flights between Chubu Airport in central Japan and Sapporo, Sendai, Fukuoka and Taipei.

The airline suspended all international and domestic flights from April.

Operations in Japan resumed in August, but the carrier stopped all domestic flights again from this month. All flights have been canceled through October 24. Services are expected to remain canceled until December 5.

AirAsia Japan said in a statement that despite its efforts to sustain operations through successive and wide-ranging cost reduction initiatives, the company has concluded that it would be extremely challenging to continue operations without any visibility and certainty of a post-pandemic recovery.

The airline is a joint venture between Malaysia-based AirAsia Group and Japanese partners and began operations in 2017.

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