JAL’s Golden Week Forecasts

JAL has released its passenger traffic forecast for the Japanese Golden Week vacation that spans 11 days this year from 28 April to 8 May 2011.

In seeking to improve profitability, capacities this year on international and domestic routes are 24.2% and 23.8% less than in 2010.

The number of reservations on JAL’s international flights is presently 208,486 and on domestic flights 820,474 - a decline of 32.8% and 26.1% respectively against the same period last year.

International flights are estimated to be more than 95% full at the peak of this vacation period with significant numbers of individual leisure travelers utilizing the airline’s Dynamic Saver fares for short-haul and long-haul sectors, as well as business class travelers from Japan.

26 additional flights are also scheduled to resort destinations Honolulu, Palau and Bali. The overall load factor on international flights is projected at 69.9%.

Reservations for domestic flights this year were made nearer to the date of travel as a result of the Great East Japan Earthquake and estimated load factors increased by approximately 15 percentage points compared to forecasts made in the middle of April.

JAL plans to operate 317 additional domestic flights with the majority to airports in the Tohoku region of Japan namely, Aomori, Hanamaki, Misawa, Sendai and Yamagata.

The overall load factor on domestic routes is projected to be 58.1%, with load factors on flights to Okinawa, Hokkaido and the Tohoku region expected in the higher range of 64% to 71%.

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