By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Japan Airlines today said it plans to lay off 80 to 90 employees at Honolulu Airport as part of a national restructuring of how it handles passenger and baggage services at four U.S. airports.

The airline announced it will pass the work over to outside contractors at New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu.

Altogether, JAL has 300 workers in those jobs, but the airline said about 100 of them will be kept on nationally to oversee the contracts.

Sources in Japan said the 200 layoffs equal about a quarter of JAL's American work force.

JAL issued a statement from New York saying that some employees will be transferred to other positions in JAL, some will find jobs with the service companies being contracted to do the work and some will get severance packages.

The changes at the three mainland airports will take place in July but no timetable has been set for Honolulu, JAL said.

JAL said it is an "anomaly" in today's aviation world for it to continue to do its own passenger and baggage handling. It has been setting up subsidiaries to do some of the work and contracting out the rest.

A subsidiary called JAL Passenger Services America Inc. already handles most of the reservations work at Los Angeles.

The airline called the restructuring at the airports "another step in the airline's quest for profitability."

Bloomberg News said the airline is trying to cut its total annual operating costs by about $20 million. JAL has about 70 flights a week from Japan to Hawaii.