Japan Airlines (JAL) will finally expand its inflight entertainment (IFE) offerings dubbed JAL Mooove! from April 2015.On top of the already announced JAL SKY Wi-Fi service expansion, JAL will add more hollywood and Japanese movies and dramas on its international flights equipped with the latest MAGIC-V and MAGIC-VI systems. On domestic flights, JAL will also expand its Wi-Fi video service to offer up to 10 video streaming programs from April 2015.  This is most likely a response to the recent IFE enhancement announced by All Nippon Airways (ANA).

Today, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) announced the allocation of 31 out of the 40 new day-time slot pairs to be added from fiscal year 2014. The allocation heavily favors All Nippon Airways (ANA) which was awarded 11 out of the 16 slot pairs available to Japanese carriers while Japan Airlines (JAL) was only awarded 5 new slot pairs.

According to an interview by Nikkei.com, American Airlines (AA) CEO Tom Horton wants to once again strengthen its partnership with Japan Airlines (JAL). Currently JAL and AA has a joint business agreement with AA to cover the transpacific routes but it is limited to passenger business only. AA wants to further that relationship and make Japan one of the pillars of its growth strategy.

ANA new First Class Japanese menu by Yoshikazu Tsuji, owner of Kaiseki "Tsujitome". Image by All Nippon Airways

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has announced its latest inflight service enhancement in the premium cabins which will be rolled out in September. The new menus will be designed by a group of renowned chefs and beverage specialists. New bedding including one for Business Class will be added too. Sounds familiar? Seems like ANA is trying to match the offerings from its rival as these are exactly what Japan Airlines (JAL) did with its New Sky Project.

AB-ROAD, a travel website in Japan, released the results of its "Airlines Satisfaction Survey 2013". This is a survey targeting the overseas travelers in Japan. 5,958 people over 18 who had traveled overseas in 2012 were invited to participate in this survey and it has received 4,187 valid responses. The overall ranking of the 40 airlines was based on individual results from the following categories:

1. Aircraft equipments
2. Hospitality of the cabin crew
3. Hospitality of the airport ground staff 
4. Inflight catering
5. Inflight entertainment

In each category, participants were asked to rank the airlines from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most satisfy. Below is the full survey results.

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.

JAL Business Class passengers will be able to view and order dishes from their touch-screen controller. Image by Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines (JAL) has recently started rolling out its state-of-art long-haul products dubbed SKY SUITE 777 (SS7) to its entire Boeing 777-300ER fleet. The goal is to create a JAL "New Sky" experience with fresh products and services. One of the most drastic changes is using the B/E Aerospace's Super First Class seats in its Business Class cabin to provide a comfortable personal space for the valued customers. Today, JAL steps up its game once again by announcing yet another inflight enhancement for its SS7 Business Class passengers. With the latest inflight entertainment system (IFE) update, Business Class passengers will be able to browse through the "Anytime You Wish" a la carte menu as well as the inflight duty free shopping menu using the touch-screen LCD controller. They will also be able to place an order using the same controller as well.

According to Wall Street Journal, Boeing is close to seeking board approval for the go ahead of the 777X jets, which is an updated version of the current 777 planes. Once approved, Boeing can start selling them to customers. But for now, Boeing has made conditional offers to at least 3 customers, including Japan Airlines (JAL), Emirates (EK), and International Airlines Group (IAG, the parent company of British Airways (BA) and Iberia (IB)) to be one of the launch customers of the 777X.

Japan Airlines (JAL) once again was recognized as the most on-time major international carrier in 2012. Its subsidiary J-AIR was also recognized as the most on-time regional carrier in Asia in 2012 by independent aviation performance tracking company FlightStats.

Jetstar Japan, the low-cost carrier (LCC) joint venture of Japan Airlines (JAL), Qantas and Mitsubishi, announced today that they are moving their launch date up from end of 2012 to July 3 2012 (subject to regulatory approval). Jetstar Japan will launch with 3 new A320s initially and will be based in Tokyo Narita (NRT). Their network at launch will include Tokyo Narita, Osaka, Sapporo, Okinawa and Fukuoka.

We knew Japan Airlines (JAL) is going to has an operating profit this quarter because JAL President told the press about it last month during the monthly press conference. We just didn't know how much. And they finally reveal it today! JAL made a 12.7 billion yen net profit and 17.1 billion yen operating profit in the first quarter of fiscal year 2011! And guess what? Although All Nippon Airways (ANA), JAL's direct competitor, had a much lower drop in passenger numbers than JAL, they still saw an 8.4 billion yen loss :p Below are some highlights of the first quarter results.

Currently Japan Airlines (JAL) have two different systems for checked baggage allowance: piece system for flights to and from US and Canada, and weigh system for the rest of the flights. The same thing applies to ANA's flights. But ANA announced they will switch to piece system from April 1 2011 on all international flights, thus simplifying the system and arguably giving more check baggage allowances for other passengers. According to Asahi, JAL is considering to do the same thing.

US Department of Transportation has granted tentative ATI approval on the ATI application of Japan Airlines (JAL) and American Airlines (AA). Now it is only waiting for Japan's MILT to grant the approval (which shouldn't be a problem). At the same time US DOT has granted approval on ANA and UA's ATI application. You can find the press release from AA here.

According to jiji.com (via The Economic Times), Japan Airlines (JAL) will spend 241.5 billion yen in the next 5 years to buy small/mid-sized fuel efficient aircraft.

All Nippon Airways has announced its fiscal year 2010-2011 corporate strategy and revised its earning forecast today. This can be summarized in one sentence: ANA's loss has widened due to increased competitions and they will restructure and downsize too! Looks like Japan Airlines' recent promotions are seeing some positive effects (from JAL's point of view of course, this is a JAL blog LOL)!

China Eastern Airlines (MU) currently is a partner of both Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways. There are speculations recently that MU will end its partnership with one of them but their president has denied such speculation.

Frobes released its 2009 top 10 most on-time airlines a few weeks ago. Japan Airlines beats all of other carriers and scores the highest on-time percentage in 2009! Congratulations!

Travel Vision has an update report on the Haneda slots for international flights. According to the report, China could be allocated as much as 20 flights per day! But the most interesting part is there's a comment regarding US DOT's preference of who they want to allocate their 4 slots to. Below are the destination allocation so far

The fight for Japanese traffic in the US is far from over. Round 1 has just ended with American Airlines taking home the grand prize of Japan Airlines' commitment. Round 2 of this fight has already begun and is way more vigorous than the first round. This time around, the airlines are fighting for 4 pairs of slots at Haneda. AA's opponents are Delta, United, Continental and Hawaiian Airlines.

If you haven't heard about Feng Zhenghu before, here is his wiki page. He is the Chinese activist who spent 92 days at Narita Terminal 1 after being denied entry to China in November for the 8th time in a row. I am not trying to get into politics on this blog so this entry is only about how JAL and ANA handle this incident.