JAL decides to
cut 7 more flights
a week to Hawaii

The cutback eliminates about 2,800
seats each week from its capacity

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Japan Airlines will cut seven more Japan-Hawaii flights from its weekly schedule, starting Thursday , eliminating about 2,800 seats a week.

The airline said it is suspending its six flights a week from Sendai to Honolulu at least until Dec. 26 and is turning its two separate weekly flights from Niigata and Sapporo into a single flight a week connecting Niigata, Sapporo and Honolulu.

Earlier this month, JAL cut 10 Tokyo-Honolulu flights and seven Osaka-Honolulu flights.

Altogether, the cuts will reduce JAL's Hawaii service to 51 flights a week from 75 a week.

"The amendments reflect changes in international passenger demand in the aftermath of the September terrorist attacks," the airline said.

Using reduced flight frequencies, temporary suspension of some routes and putting smaller aircraft on some links, JAL is suspending its worldwide seat capacity by 7 percent.

Merchants and hotels in the islands that do a lot of business with Japanese tourists say they have been hit hard by the drop in travel from Japan.

According to passenger-arrival figures from the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, arrivals on flights from Japan are running about 60 percent below what they were this time last year. Thus far, about 104,000 fewer visitors from Japan have arrived in Hawaii than last year.