Japan Airlines (JAL) announces the JAL SKY Wi-Fi service expansion plan today. JAL will install eXConnect from Panasonic on its 777-200ER, 767-300ER, and 787 fleets aggressively to provide inflight internet service on long-haul flights to North America, Europe and Southeast Asia.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has just announced the plan to increase frequency on the Tokyo Narita (NRT) - New York JFK (JFK) route to 2 daily from March 30 2014. The newly added flight will be operated with a Boeing 787-8 (788) with Business Class and Economy Class service only.

JAL to provide English version of SKY MANGA

JAL announces that it will finally roll out the English contents to its popular SKY MANGA, the world's first electronic manga service onboard. A total of 6 sets and 30 volumes of English manga will be available through MAGIC-V inflight entertainment system installed on the 787s. This is on top of the 38 sets and 100 volume of Japanese contents already available right now. JAL plans to update the content every 3 months.

Flight status of JL007 shown on JAL website

[Update: Added flight load]
[Update 2: Added flight cancelation notice]
[Update 3: Added description from JAL daily 787 operation update]

A Japan Airlines (JAL) 787-8 performing flight JL007 from Boston (BOS) to Tokyo Narita (NRT) has returned to Boston after takeoff due to aircraft maintenance on July 18 2013. The plane landed safely at 18:16 EDT.

New ANA long-haul configured 787-8 seat map with Premium Economy and 9-abreats Economy Class seat. Image by All Nippon Airways

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has just published a new 787 long-haul configuration with includes a Premium Economy cabin and a new 9-abreast 3-3-3 configuration in Economy Class. The new configuration will have a total of 169 seats, up from the previous 158-seat long-haul configuration.

[Update: Added AP report to the end of the post]
[Update 2: Nikkei confirms the repair was done by Boeing workers]
[Update 3: Added JAL explanation quote and plane registration info]

Japan Airlines (JAL) has resumed 787 service on June 1 2013 after four and a half months of grounding. The first 787-8 (788) flight was JL035 from Tokyo Haneda (HND) to Singapore (SIN). It was operated with JA825J, which happens to be the first 788 delivered to JAL. It departed at 01:02 from gate 113 and took off from runway 34L 01:23 and landed at SIN 5 minutes ahead of schedule. Japanese aviation site Aviation Wire has an article on JAL and ANA's first scheduled 788 service with some pictures. Above is JA828J departing from HND on June 1, I assume that's flight JL021 to Beijing (PEK).

JAL resumed 787 service with JL035 from Haneda to Singapore and it landed ahead of schedule according to status posted on Japan Airlines website.

However, the service resumption did not go as smooth as one has hoped. JAL has found pressure difference inside and outside the battery compartment in one of the 787s and had to take that out of service for further investigation.

We all know Japan Airlines (JAL) loves to organize special tours especially when they launch a new route or when they retire an aircraft type from their fleet (they recently announced a 2-day domestic tour for the MD-90 retirement and more details will be released on November 20 2012). So it shouldn't be a surprise that JAL will be organizing a special tour for the new Tokyo Narita (NRT) - San Diego (SAN) 787 route launch this December. It will be a 5 day tour and you will be able to fly on the inaugural flight JL066 from NRT to SAN on December 2 2012. Below are the details of the itinerary.

JAL 787 was greeted with water canon salute at SIN. Image from Changi Airport Group

[Update: Added link to the SIN commencement flight album on Strait Times]

There were two special Japan Airlines (JAL) 787 flight that took off yesterday. The first one is commencement flight of the recently unveiled JAL x Ghibli special decal JET (JA828J) for the SORA wo TOBU (Fly the Skies) project. And the second one is the launch of 787 service to Singapore. Below are the video and links to pictures of these two commencement flights.

Special JAL x Ghibli 787 livery for the SORA wo TOBU project. Image from Japan Airlines

[Updated with link to photo album of today's official reveal event from Mainichi Daily]
[Update 2: Include YouTube video of the plane posted by Yiuchan in the comment]

Japan Airlines (JAL) finally reveals the long awaited special JAL x Ghibli special decal JET 787 livery for the SORA wo TOBU project (it means Fly the Skies project) today. The SORA wo TOBU project is a collaboration between JAL and Studio Ghibli aiming to bring you the "Dreams, Joy and Delight of Flying the Skies". JAL has been showing some special inflight programs created by Studio Ghibli is the past couple of months, including an exclusive short animate created by director Hayao Miyazaki. Another part of the collaboration was to hold a drawing competitions for kids and use the winning entries to decorate a special 787 plane.

Today Japan Airlines (JAL) announces February 25 2013 as the launch date of its Tokyo Narita (NRT) - Helsinki (HEL) 787 service. Previously, JAL planned to start this service in March instead. Given its location is much closer to Japan compared to other European gateway and the 35 minutes minimum connection time (MCT) for transit passenger in their compact terminal, the new NRT-HEL flight will offer JAL passengers a stress free and shortest transit experience to many Northern, Central and Eastern European cities.

Thanks to 25 Million JMB Members Promotion. Image from Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced that their frequent flyer program, JAL Mileage Bank (JMB), has reached the 25 million members milestone. To celebrate this amazing achievement, JAL has launched a series of campaign. The first 3 campaigns were announced today and more will be announced on October 25 2012 (JST).

When JAL announced their 2nd half route, fleet and frequency plan, they only mentioned the existing flights on the Tokyo-Sinapore routes will be switching from 763 to 787 in mid October. Now JAL has finally released the full 787 rollout schedule on this route. The rollout will be on October 14 2012 with 3 weekly flights operated with 787-8 on both of the Tokyo Narita (NRT) and Tokyo Haneda (HND) flights. It will turn into a daily 787-8 service from October 28 2012

According to TBS News, Japan Airlines (JAL) flight 442 from Moscow Domodedovo (DME) to Tokyo Narita (NRT) landed safely at NRT on August 21 2012. But post-arrival check found that 6 of the front wheel screws were missing. NRT Runway B was closed briefly for 15 minutes to look for the missing screws. JAL deploys its state of art 787-8 on the DME route. As shown by the video on TBS site, the aircraft involved was JA825J, which was the first 787 delivered to JAL. No words on the cause of the incident yet.

Japan Airlines (JAL) has just announced changes to their schedule for the second half of the current fiscal year ending in March 2013. Quite a lot of the changes, mainly 787 deployments, have been announced before. But there are also some frequency and aircraft changes on regional and domestic flights that are new. However, the press release does not mention anything about the Saturday equipment change on Tokyo Narita (NRT) - Vancouver (YVR) route which upgrades the aircraft to from 767-300ER to 777-200ER with JAL Shell Flat seats that is currently loaded into the schedule. Below are the details of the JAL Group plan for the second half of FY2013.

As you all know, Japan Airlines received their first two Boeing 787s (JA825J and JA822J) about a month ago and JAL has just launched the new Tokyo Narita (NRT) - Boston (BOS) route on April 22. But the launch isn't as smooth as expected. JAL has to delay JL007 (BOS-NRT) on April 25 for 24 hours due to aircraft maintenance issues.

Japan Airlines (JAL) is set to receive 2 more 787 deliveries in the very near future. As a result, JAL is able to confirm the 787 service commencement dates for Delhi, Beijing and Moscow routes.

Japan Airlines (JAL) inaugural 787 flight to Boston finally took off at 11:46 JST today. The inaugural flight, JL008, is operated with JA822J, the 2nd 787 JAL received, and is completely sold out. The current estimated arrival time is 11:33 EDT, 13 minutes behind schedule but is still considered as on-time according industry standard.

Yesterday, Japan Airlines (JAL) President Yoshiharu Ueki discussed about the possibilities of adding new destinations in Myanmar, China and Indonesia. Today, the vice-president of network planning, Kiyoto Morioka, discussed more 787 possible destinations which include flights to fellow oneworld partner hubs in Europe.

Finally! Japan Airlines (JAL) has uploaded its official 787-8 seat map to its website. The long-haul configuration of the 787 is called E01.

JAL uploads official 787-8 seat map (Source: JAL website)