AFP – Japan Airlines (JAL) said yesterday it is buying 42 airplanes from Boeing and Airbus as part of a drive to boost its international and domestic operations.
Thirty-two new aircraft from Airbus and 10 from Boeing in orders worth billions of dollars.
The firm said it would “introduce a total of 21 Airbus A350-900 aircraft from Airbus, along with 11 A321neo aircraft, and 10 Boeing 787-9 aircraft from The Boeing Company, as part of its fleet renewal plan”.
But a separate statement listed the “catalogue” prices of the planes, which in total comes to around USD12.9 billion.
One of the Airbus A350-900 planes is to replace one of the same model destroyed in an accident with another airplane at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on January 2, it said.
All 379 people on board the JAL Airbus escaped just before the aircraft was engulfed in flames, but five of the six people on the smaller aircraft died.
The airline said it will add 20 Airbus A350-900 aircraft and 10 Boeing 787-9 to its international routes, adding to its existing fleet of more than 50 Boeing 787-series planes.
“These new aircraft introductions aim to enhance and expand the capacity of JAL’s international operations, with a primary focus on regions such as North America, Asia, and India where future growth is expected,” it said in a statement.
On domestic routes, JAL will introduce 21 Boeing 737-8 aircraft to replace its current Boeing 737-800 fleet, starting from 2026, it said.
Additionally, to update their existing fleet of medium-sized Boeing 767 aircraft, JAL will introduce 11 Airbus A321neo aircraft.
This marks the first time that JAL, which is Japan’s second-biggest airline after All Nippon Airways (ANA), will introduce the model, it said.
