FLYING IN STYLE
JAL enlivens its Thailand-to-Japan service with a renovated Suvarnabhumi lounge and better business class.
Japan Airlines (JAL) seeks to breathe new life into its Thai base of operations with the deployment of retrofit wide-body jets and renovations of its lounge at Suvarnabhumi airport.
The Japanese flag carrier recently chose to debut its latest cabin interior, with the highlight of a refreshed business class, on the Bangkok-Haneda trunk line.
JAL plans to give its Thai lounge, which is showing its mileage after eight years of operations, a major facelift to bring it up to a similar standard as its Haneda and Narita airport hubs.
The introduction of retrofit Boeing 777200ERs on top of the lounge renovations represents an expedited effort to upgrade its product quality and services to better handle intense competition in the Thailand-Japan flight sector.
Hitoshi Morimoto, JAL’s manager for Thailand, Indochina and South Asia, said the upgrade would be essential should JAL become the full-service airline of choice for travel between Thailand and Japan.
JAL, which filed for bankruptcy in 2010 — Japan’s biggest-ever corporate failure — hopes the upgrade will help maximise its seat capacity on the Thailand-Japan sector.
The airline, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of its Bangkok-Tokyo service this year, has a 12% share of overall seat capacity for the country-pair, while Thai Airways International has the lion’s share with roughly 50%.
Mr Morimoto told the Bangkok Post that JAL wants to build up its passenger market share to 12% over the next few years from 6-7% at present.
Last year, JAL carried around 500,000 passengers between Thailand and Japan. It aims to increase the number to 550,000 this year.
The passenger mix on JAL’s ThailandJapan flights is split 70:30 between Japanese and Thais.
With Japanese passenger numbers stagnating, JAL wants to increase the number of Thai travellers, who list Japan among their top foreign destinations of choice, the Japanese executive said.
Thanks to a visa waiver and Japanese attractions that appeal to Thais, the number of Thai visitors to the Land of the Rising Sun soared to 800,000 last year, and is forecast to hit 1 million this year, added Mr Morimoto.
JAL operates five flights daily from Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi airport) to Japan, consisting of one to Narita, two to Haneda, one to Nagoya and one to Osaka.
The airline plans to add a second daily service between Bangkok and Narita between December and March next year to cater to robust winter season demand, said the executive.
JAL’s l ounge at Suvarnabhumi is expected to be closed for renovations by the end of next month and will reopen around March next year.