Japan Airlines may receive a ¥100 billion (US$1.04 billion) loan to help it through the global slump, Japanese media reports said yesterday.
Szehunn Yap, spokeswoman for Japan Airlines Corp (JAL), Asia’s biggest carrier, said the reports were speculative, and there had been no word yet on the loan request. JAL, as the carrier is known, has been seeking up to ¥200 billion in loans.
Kyodo News agency, citing unidentified sources, said the state-run Development Bank of Japan and three other major Japanese banks — Mizuho Corporate Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ — were in the final stages of loaning about ¥100 billion to the carrier.
The Japanese government has been boosting the availability of loans to help cash-strapped companies ride out the global slump.
JAL sank into a ¥63.2 billion loss for the fiscal year ended March, in contrast to the ¥16.9 billion profit for the previous year. It is expecting more red ink for the curren fiscal year.
Kyodo reported the banks were ready to provide the loans but could demand additional restructuring to cut costs. The airline has said it will further reduce costs this year by ¥53 billion by boosting efficiency in sales, maintenance and fuel usage.
Separately, JAL canceled at least 31 domestic flights while dozens more were delayed yesterday because of computer glitch, affecting more than 9,000 passengers.
JAL reported problems with its check-in system early yesterday, preventing passengers from going through departure gates at Tokyo’s Haneda airport, a company spokesman said.
The trouble, which came after the company introduced new software for electronic tickets, affected at least 9,242 passengers by noon, the spokesman said.
“The system is mostly back to normal but still a total of 33 flights were delayed,” the spokesman said.
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