Money-losing Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) is considering raising ¥250 billion (US$2.8 billion) from financial institutions and others including Delta Air Lines Inc under a major restructuring plan, a newspaper said yesterday.
JAL is to announce its management improvement plan by the end of the month.
Under the plan, JAL hopes to raise ¥250 billion, Japan’s Nikkei Shimbun said yesterday, citing no sources. JAL will seek capital from banks, investment funds and others including Delta, the world’s biggest airline operator, the paper said.
Officials at JAL could not be reached for comment yesterday. The company said in a statement on Saturday it was aware of reports on tie-ups between JAL and foreign carriers, but said nothing has been decided.
Hit by plummeting demand amid a slumping global economy and swine flu fears, JAL incurred its biggest-ever quarterly net loss of ¥99 billion in the three months to June.
Delta is in preliminary discussions about buying a stake in JAL for about US$300 million. The U.S. airline giant could become a leading shareholder in JAL and get coveted access to Haneda Airport, close to Tokyo’s business district, a person briefed on the Delta situation said.
The Nikkei said Delta has offered to invest as much as ¥50 billion, which would give it a 11.2 percent stake in JAL.
Delta’s rival American Airlines is also negotiating a possible investment, according to a person familiar with the talks. American would like to form a joint business venture with JAL, in which the two carriers would seek antitrust immunity to work closely in setting schedules and prices for service around the world, according to the person, who spoke on Saturday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks.
JAL is also in talks with Air France-KLM, Europe’s biggest airline group, over a capital tie-up, Japan’s top-selling newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun, reported Saturday.
JAL has forecast a net loss of ¥63 billion for the fiscal year to next March and plans to cut the number of flights and slash costs by ¥53 billion during the current fiscal year and another ¥100 billion in the next fiscal year.
The Nikkei said JAL would cut 4,700 jobs equal to about 10 percent of its group work force under the restructuring plan. The airline will also sell subsidiaries and assets to raise capital.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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