Jetstar Japan has launched a second international route with flights from Tokyo Narita to Hong Kong due to take off on June 1.
The low-cost carrier planned to start with three times a week service between Tokyo and Hong Kong with an Airbus A320, gradually increasing to daily by the start of September, according to schedules filed with global distribution systems and published by the Airline Route website.
According to a dummy booking on the Jetstar website, the first flight GK21 was scheduled to depart Tokyo Narita at 0900 local time on Monday June 1 and touch down in Hong Kong at 1240. The reciprocal GK22 was due to leave Hong Kong at 1340 and arrive back at Tokyo Narita four hours and 20 minutes later at 1900 local time.
Jetstar Japan, a partnership between Qantas, Japan Airlines, Mitsubishi Corporation and Century Tokyo Leasing Corporation, will compete with Cathay Pacific, All Nippon Airways, Hong Kong Express, Japan Airlines and Vanilla Air on the Tokyo Narita-Hong Kong route.
The airline started flying internationally in February, with Osaka Kansai-Hong Kong its first route.
The start of international flights, as well as the recently established second operating base at Osaka, was regarded as a key plank in Jetstar Japan’s bid to achieve profitability.
The airline posted an 11.1 billion Japanese yen loss for the 12 months to June 30 2014 and has received two capital injections from its major shareholders Qantas and Japan Airlines in the past year.
Most recently, on November 28 2014, the pair agreed to put an additional 11 billion yen into the loss-making low-cost carrier to support growth ahead of international flights beginning in 2015.
Hong Kong, which is also served by Jetstar Asia from Singapore, is the proposed base for Jetstar’s newest airline, Jetstar Hong Kong, which is awaiting regulatory approval from local authorities.
Meanwhile, Jetstar Japan named Gerry Turner as the airline’s new chief executive following the resignation Miyuki Suzuki, who helped launch the airline in 2012.
Turner was currently Jetstar Group executive manager for group operations.
In addition to stepping down as chief executive, Suzuki was also leaving the Jetstar Japan board as representative director.
The airline has appointed Masaru Kataoka, currently Jetstar Group regional general manager in Japan, as its new chairman and representative director.
