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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.

Skymark Airlines (headquarters in Ōta-ward, Tokyo), a Japanese low-cost start-up that began operations in 1998 following after deregulation, is likely to report a profit for this fiscal year despite its big Japanese competitors and full-fledge carriers ANA and JAL, reported making heavy losses.

Skymark Airlines as an independent carrier could well weather the economic downturn, by using its lean model of business and cost reduction measures, operates just one single fleet of 12 Boeing 737-800s, common with many low-cost carriers. It used to operate a small number of Boeing 767-300s, but due to its higher seating capacity resulting in lower fuel efficiency as well as requiring more passengers to break even, were disposed of from its fleet eventually.

Skymark Airlines latest expansion was to make Kobe a secondary base, after Haneda. It has recently started a new route in December from its base at Kobe operating twice-daily flight to Okinawa. It also has announced to conduct daily flights between Kobe and Fukuoka began this month on February 1st. It is aiming to develop Kobe Airport into a regional hub by 2014, adding new routes from Kobe to Sapporo, Sendai, Matsuyama, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Naha.

Skymark Airlines has at the request of Ibaraki Airport to commence regular flight service using this newly built airport that is scheduled for opening in a few week’s time. Skymark Airlines has decided at the opening day of Ibaraki Airport on March 11 to conduct commemorative flights, 2 flight leaving from Kobe to Ibaraki, 1 flight each leaving from Ibaraki to Kobe and Haneda making a total of 4 flights on that day. Reservations for the commemorative flights started in January 30, and all 177 seats on all the flights were sold out in a few weeks after released. It is still considering whether to operate regular service using this airport.

Skymark Airlines market share in Japan.