The airline Friday said it is delaying the start-up because the United States won't give permission for it unless Japan first authorizes additional services for United Airlines.
JAL said it will run 327 passengers who have booked seats for Monday's flight to Honolulu instead, clear them through Customs and Immigration at Honolulu Airport and ferry them to Kona aboard local airlines.
Japanese officials said the United States is insisting on Japan's approval of United's request to open an Osaka-Seoul service before it approves JAL's Kona flights. JAL applied in December for the right to fly into Kona's Keahole Airport three times a week using 747 jumbo jets and set April 1 as the start-up date.
The new service has been widely anticipated on the Big Isle, with business and county officials saying it would be a huge shot in the arm to the county's economy. The state spent about $2 million to get Keahole Airport in Kona prepared for JAL's flights
Hawaii County Research and Development director Dianne Quitiquit said she was disappointed by Friday's news but still hopeful that an agreement will be reached eventually.
"It's not just from a tourism perspective. It's for overall economic development," she said.
The county hoped other Japanese airlines would follow, and with them would come other investments in the Kona area.
"Indicators show the Big Island economy starting to improve. It's a very slow turn," she said.
But, for now, Hawaii-Japan air services are stuck in the middle of an international trade debate.
JAL and United have each taken the stand that the existing agreements already allow what they want and approval should be virtually automatic.
In a statement from its headquarters in Tokyo, JAL said its Kona service has been dragged into a difference of opinion between Japan and the United States over "beyond rights." These rights allow United flights to Japan to pick up passengers there and fly to other Asia destinations, putting them in competition with Japanese carriers.
United Airlines, backed by the U.S. government, wants to expand its Tokyo-Seoul service and contends that a 1952 U.S.-Japan aviation agreement gives them the authority to do so.
JAL said the Japanese government holds that the rights are already being abused by United in its existing Tokyo-Seoul business.
Japanese authorities say that United has been building up its Tokyo-Seoul business, in violation of the main purpose of the beyond rights agreement.
JAL said beyond rights is a separate issue from the Kona service, which is permitted under a 1989 agreement. The result is that the United States is unfairly penalizing JAL over a separate issue, JAL said. "Penalties damage not only airlines, but the consumer, the hoteliers, tour operators and every section of the travel industry and we are all in the same industry," JAL said.
United says Japan is not honoring the 1952 aviation pact and that it should do so before new aviation talks start.