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Yesterday, February 28, Japan Airlines (JAL) officially unveiled a brand new Boeing 767-300ER painted with the airline’s latest crane livery at its maintenance center in Tokyo, Haneda. This is the first aircraft in its fleet to bear the new representation of the airline company. The change in logo was announced last month on January 19, alongside the Group’s new philosophy and corporate policy which underscore the company’s re-commitment to provide the highest levels of service to customers and to raise its corporate value in order to contribute to the advancement of society.

At JAL’s monthly press conference, which was also held yesterday at the maintenance center at 10.00am, JAL announced operating profits of 7.3 billion yen on a consolidated basis for the month of January, and a total of 165.9 billion yen for the period from April 2010 to January 2011. Following the conference, media in attendance were invited to the hangar where JAL Group President Masaru Onishi unveiled the new 767-300ER spotting the red circular crane that will from hence be the symbol of JAL.
“The significance of adopting this new motif after a year since we entered the corporate reorganization proceedings in January 2010 is to mark the rebirth of Japan Airlines,” said Onishi. “Possessing again, the pioneer spirit like staff members at the time of JAL’s founding, we will take on the challenges ahead as we resolve to continue serving customers with swift responses and hospitality from the heart.”

The aircraft will be inaugurated as a scheduled international flight to Beijing from Tokyo (Haneda) on March 2, 2011. Its first flight however, took off yesterday afternoon as a commemorative flight from Haneda to Kushiro in Northern Hokkaido where actual red-crowned cranes can be seen in winter. This flight was part of a special one-day tour organized in collaboration with JAL Tours to mark the occasion, and included a visit to one of Kushiro’s several crane sanctuaries.

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Skymark Airlines (headquarters in Ota ward, Tokyo) has recently announced its plan to tap into and expand its late-night and early morning flight services from Haneda airport. With Haneda airport set to operate around the clock, being presently used only by cargo jets and international charter flights late at night, Skymark Airlines plans to add late-night and early morning hours round-trip flights from Haneda to Naha, Haneda to Kitakyushu as well as from Kitakyushu to Naha set to begin this summer. All 3 airports, Haneda Airport, Naha Airport and Kitakyushu Airport are catered for 24 hours operations.

Already been confirmed that Skymark will launch 2 late-night Naha-bound flights leaving Haneda airport at midnight starting in June and at 12:20 a.m. to start in July, with arrival at Naha airport around 02:40 a.m. and 03:00 a.m. The return flight will leave Naha sometime between 3 and 4 a.m. and arrive at Haneda before 6 a.m.

Skymark Airlines further plans to add Haneda-Kitakyushu and Kitakyushu-Naha round-trip flights, with flight departure/arrival time between midnight and 06:00 a.m. to make use of Kitakyushu Airport’s 24-hour operations. Skymark hopes this will give travelers greater flexibility and stimulate demand by flying new routes. At present, Starflyer Airlines is the only carrier operating a late-night flight on a domestic route between Haneda and Kitakyushu, leaving Haneda at 23:25h and with an estimate arrival into Kitakyushu at 00:55h.

The Haneda-Naha, Haneda-Kitakyushu and Kitakyushu-Naha flights bring the total number of the airline’s routes to twelve. Skymark also plan to add more new routes later of the year to Kagoshima, Kumamoto and Nagasaki (via Kobe). Skymark operates on a single fleet of Boeing B737-800 aircrafts, with a seating capacity of under 180 passengers, using a single class configuration.