Golden Week holiday travel demand (27-Apr-07 to 06-May-07) was generally quite strong this year, particularly in China, while ANA continued to outperform Japan Airlines in Japan as the…
Golden Week holiday travel demand (27-Apr-07 to 06-May-07) was generally quite strong this year, particularly in China, while ANA continued to outperform Japan Airlines in Japan as the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation reported.
JAL’s total passenger numbers rose 1.6% this Golden Week, compared to a 2.2% increase in last year’s Golden Week. International travel declined 1%, (following a 2.8% drop in 2006), showing that JAL is slowly turning the corner in the international market – but the all the action is occurring on higher yielding routes close to home.
Bookings were strong on routes serving China (+11.3%), Guam (+11.0%), and South Korea (+17.7%), while demand increased by 3.9% to Southeast Asia. Under its Medium Term Rivival Plan, JAL is reducing capacity on routes serving Australia and the US, as evidenced by the 29.4% reduction in capacity to Oceania and a 27.9% reduction on trans-Pacific routes during the recent Golden Week. Capacity to Europe also fell 1%, while demand fell 7.8% year-on-year.
JAL’s domestic result was weaker than its rival, ANA, with the number of passengers travelling up 2.3% year-on-year (after a 3% increase in traffic during the last Golden Week). Demand was particularly high on services to Hokkaido, southwest Honshu, Shikoku and the Okinawa Islands.
ANA’s domestic travel increased by 4.6%, buoyed by the introduction of new promotional fares and good weather during the period. Like JAL, Okinawa proved a particularly popular destination for ANA passengers, with around 20% more passengers flying than in Golden Week 2006.
But ANA continues to strengthen its international market share. The number of passengers carried on international routes (130,000, +6.6%) broke its previous record (125,000) set in 2006 (which was in turn up a massive 21.3% on 2005, when traffic was affected by anti-Japan demonstrations in China). 54,000 of ANA`s passengers, or over 40%, had China as their destination this Golden Week, demonstrating the importance of this segment.
Meanwhile, China’s airlines reported passenger traffic during the weeklong May holiday (01-May-07 to 07-May-07) surged 19.9% year-on-year to 3.65 million. The breakdown between domestic and international was not disclosed, but most of the increase was attributable to domestic routes.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
