Saturday, February 7, 2015

New AirAsia Japan's first Airbus A320 due in July.

AirAsia Japan (Mk II), which hopes to commence operations before the end of 2015 with a hub at Nagoya/Chubu Centrair [NGO/RJGG] (AirAsia Japan selects Nagoya Chubu Centrair.), has reserved registrations for its first 10 Airbus A320s. The first aircraft will be A320-216 JA01DJ, the 6676th example to roll out of the European planemaker's narrow-body production line, and is planned for delivery in July.

Airbus A320-216(SL) 9M-AQX of AirAsia (Malaysia) taxies at Bangkok's Don Mueang Airport. This aircraft served with the first AirAsia Japan (Mk I) as JA04AJ between March and November 2013. (Photo: Ryosuke Yano)

The second aircraft, JA02DJ, is slated to arrive in August. The third to 10th airframes, with the registrations JA03DJ, JA04DJ, JA05DJ, JA06DJ, JA07DJ, JA08DJ, JA09DJ, and JA10DJ, respectively, are expected to arrive from January 2016 onwards. The delivery dates point out to a 3Q FY2015 launch, which has been almost confirmed by AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes.

Late in December, Mr. Fernandes had revealed that paperwork to submit to Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT) was taking more time than expected and the inaugural flight is now targeted by the end of the year (New AirAsia Japan eyes launch by year-end 2015.). Their original target was June. However, the new Japanese unit of Asia's largest LCC group finally started hiring flight attendants early in January, and is officially expected to apply for an Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) by the end of February.

Headed by Yoshinori Odagiri, former CEO of the first incarnation, AirAsia Japan (Mk II) was officially relaunched last summer (AirAsia Japan is officially reborn; first flight June 2015.) with an initial capital totaling 7 billion JPY from AirAsia [AK/AXM] (49%), Octave Japan Infrastructure Fund (19%), Rakuten (18%), Noevir Holdings (9%), and Alpen (5%). Mr. Odagiri has hinted that Fukuoka [FUK/RJFF] and Sapporo/New Chitose [CTS/RJCC] are their likely first routes, with Taiwan to become their first international destination.

The Malaysia-based LCC group's first crack at the Japanese market with AirAsia Japan (Mk I) [JW/WAJ] (CoachFlyer JW8541: NRT - FUK on AirAsia Japan's Airbus A320.) ended in a divorce with joint-venture (JV) partner ANA Holdings due to managerial differences only 10 months after launching operations in August 2012. That company now operates as Vanilla Air [JW/VNL] (Vanilla Air launches operations.) under 100% ANA ownership.

Source: Ikaros Airline @ Twitter, February 6th. (in Japanese)

No comments:

Post a Comment