ROUTES ASIA: Skymark Introduces Link to Amami Oshima

Japanese domestic carrier Skymark Airlines has resumed flights to Amami Oshima Island with the launch yesterday (March 27) of a daily link to its Kagoshima hub . The flights have been timed to provide efficient onward connections from Kagoshima to both Kobe and Tokyo Heneda. The route is already served up to eight times daily by Japan Air Commuter using smaller Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 and Saab 340 turboprops.

Source: Flightbase (April 14-20, 2011)

As the table above shows, Amami Oshima is already linked directly to Fukuoka, Kikaiga Shima, Okino Erabu, Osaka International, Yoronjima, Tokunoshima and Tokyo Haneda. Approximately 651,000 O&D passengers used these scheduled flights to and from Amami Oshima in the year ending January 2011, with more than 314,000 flying to and from Kagoshima, the busiest point-to-point market. The average fare between Kagoshima and Amami Oshima in this period was $202 each way, with Skymark’s average one-way fare across its network being just $81 - only its flights between Asahikawa, Fukuoka, Naha, Sapporo and Tokyo Haneda secured average one-way fares above the $100 mark during the 12 month period.

Skymark Airlines is confident that using a larger Boeing 737-800 on the route will enable it to offer lower fares than its rival, attracting a predominantly leisure-oriented clientele to the popular holiday destination. The sea around the islands, designated as Amami-gunto Quasi-National Park, is blessed with transparent waters, bright coloured coral reefs and tropical fish, and is known as a fantastic diving spot, with the northern part of the island, where Amami Airport is located, a popular resort spot for divers, with white sand beaches and shores boasting beautiful coral reefs.