Japan Airlines cargo merger on hold over structural uncertainty

THE planned merging of Japan Airlines (JAL) cargo business with Nippon Cargo Airlines has been delayed over uncertainty of its future structure.

A JAL spokeswoman told International Freighting Weekly (IFW): "Initially, both companies planned to come to a decision on this by April 2010, but in view of the current restructuring happening at JAL, this schedule has been postponed." She said it was unclear how long the delay would be, but in the mean time JAL was continuing to operate 10 freighters - a mixture of B747-400s and B767-300s.

JAL began talks with NCA's owner, shipping line NYK, last August, following the collapse of cargo volumes in the first half of last year. The two airlines started code-sharing flights for the first time last March, which JAL said had "resulted in a step up in quality of service and convenience provided to customers".

(Source: www.schednet.com)