Japan Airlines Cuts 45 More Routes

In a statement on Wednesday, Japan Airlines said that they will cut 30 domestic and 15 international routes to drastically cut costs during their restructuring, which will slash 30% of their domestic operations and 20% of international operations. This will give them a total of 78 cut routes after suspending 30 routes during the previous fiscal year, which ended in March. The statement said the airline is trying to cut the same amount of costs in 1 year that were originally intended to span 3 years.

Japan Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection in January and had a debt of $25.6 billion. They are undergoing restructuring led by the government and new leadership. Some of the international routes to be suspended after September include those from Tokyo to Milan, Amsterdam, Milan and San Franciso; and Osaka to Hong Kong, Beijing and Guam. The carrier has also been delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The airline previously announced that they will cut about one-third of their 47,000 workers, which would be about 15,000, during a 3-year span. The newest announcement on Wednesday didn’t include any talk of cutting jobs, except Taro Nanba, the company spokesman, mentioning that about 3,600 employees have applied for early voluntary retirement. He also said that they are behind schedule in their restructuring plan, though they are finalizing details. It’s likely that they will miss the deadline at the end of June for submission to the court, Nanba added.

Meanwhile, Japan Airlines is looking to Oneworld alliance partner American Airlines for a boost. The two airlines are seeking approval from the government to work closer in areas like carrying each other’s customers and sharing revenue.