Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines, usually called JAL, runs one of Asia's biggest airline networks from its home base in Tokyo. The company's main hubs are Haneda and Narita airports, with secondary hubs at Osaka's Kansai and Itami airports. Under the JAL group umbrella sit domestic feeders Hokkaido Air System, J-Air, Japan Air Commuter, Japan Transocean Air and Ryukyu Air Commuter, plus JAL Cargo and the low-cost carriers Zipair Tokyo and Jetstar Japan. The group flies to 220 destinations in 35 countries, counting codeshares, with a fleet of 279 aircraft.

The airline started in 1951 as a government-owned enterprise and took on the role of Japan's national carrier in 1953. Privatization came in 1987 after more than three decades of expansion. A 2002 merger with Japan Air System, then the country's third-largest airline, made JAL the sixth-largest carrier in the world by passengers carried. In the fiscal year ending March 2009 the group flew over 52 million passengers and moved more than 1.1 million tons of cargo and mail.

Then came the collapse. JAL filed for bankruptcy in 2010 in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and went through a painful restructuring. It returned to profit and relisted on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2011, though All Nippon Airways has since overtaken it as Japan's largest airline. JAL, J-Air, JAL Express and Japan Transocean Air belong to the Oneworld alliance. [edit]