Japan Airlines to resume Osaka-Los Angeles route

Japan’s flagship carrier Japan Airlines is making extensive efforts to launch new routes as part of its international growth in recent years. The second largest carrier in the country launched new flights to Boston and San Diego in 2014.

Keeping the pace of its international growth, Japan Airlines recently announced it will be resuming its routes it had stopped operating because of financial difficulties. The airline has already resumed its second daily flights to New York. The airline has also revealed its plans to resume its Osaka-Los Angeles route effective from March 2015. This will be the airline’s only long-haul service to be operational outside of Tokyo.

Japan Airlines in a statement said that it is planning to once again make the Osaka Kansai-London Heathrow operational. Apart from this, the resumption of Sao Paulo flights, possibly via New York, is also on the cards.

Media reports said that Japan Airlines currently views the prospects of growth in its domestic market to be quite limited. This might also impact the airline’s profitability thus prompting it to expand its international operations further.

According to Japan Airlines, the Osaka Kansai-Los Angeles route which is being revived effective from March 20, 2015 was operational until 2006, when the airline ended the service due to mounting financial difficulties. The route was then being served with daily flights utilizing a Boeing 747-400 aircraft with a seating capacity of 300 passengers. Media reports said that the airline will now be deploying a much smaller Boeing 787-8 aircraft configured with a total of 161 seats. The Osaka Kansai-Los Angeles route will be complementing the airline’s daily Tokyo Narita-Los Angeles service.