Japan Airlines Eyes Fleet Reallocation, Airport Swaps For International Ops

PERTH, Australia—Japan Airlines has ambitions to utilize its dedicated domestic-service fleet for international routes to meet capacity demand.

The flag carrier also aims to operate internationally from Japanese secondary airports, away from the traditional hubs like Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

Speaking here at Routes Asia 2025 in Perth, JAL's vice president for international route strategy, Motohisa Abe, said that the airline has faced some "challenging but interesting" headwinds in recent years, including the closure of the Russian airspace and aircraft delivery delays.

He mooted the idea of using aircraft reserved for domestic routes for international service, increasing aircraft utilization, since these aircraft are not ordinarily used at night. Similarly, international operations from secondary Japanese airports are within the scope of future consideration, even as the aircraft configuration and products are different from the international offering.

Abe said the concept is hindered, however, by a lack of available pilots in Japan.

JAL flies both narrowbody and widebody aircraft on domestic routes, usually configured in a high-density layout.

Hong Kong-based LCC HK Express is also seeing secondary airports and destinations in Japan as promising markets. The airline’s general manager for corporate planning, Matthew Choi, said that as most of these flights operate at odd hours of the night night, and pilot rotation timing determines when the flight can come in, it is therefore crucial to communicate with airport and government authorities to extend airport services—such as ground handling and immigration—to facilitate arrivals in these small airports.

HK Express flies to smaller Japanese points such as Kagoshima, Miyako, Ishigaki, Takamastu and Shizuoka.