JAL to Drop First Class Service to Jakarta

Japan Airlines is set to switch the operation of its daily Tokyo Narita – Jakarta route from a Boeing 777-300ER to a 777-200ER from the start of the Northern Winter schedules in late October. Although it is planning to use the smaller aircraft on the route there will be only a minor reduction in capacity as the 777-200ER has just one fewer seat than the 777-300ER. This is because the majority of the extra space in the larger variant is accommodated by a First Class cabin. The change will obviously mean the removal of a First Class offering on the route, although statistics suggest that demand for the premium cabin on this particular route was limited.

An estimated 201,000 O&D passengers travelled between Tokyo Narita and Jakarta in the last year. JAL has the largest share of this traffic (49 per cent), followed by Garuda Indonesia (23 per cent) and Singapore Airlines (13 per cent).