Airline News
AirAsia Japan applies for AOC, Solaseed goes international
July 27th 2015
Nagoya Chubu-based AirAsia Japan has commenced certification with the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) ahead of its planned spring 2016 launch. A joint venture between AirAsia Group (49%), Octave Japan Infrastructure Fund (19%), travel agency Rakuten (18%), Noevir Holdings (9%), and Alpen Co. (5%), AirAsia Japan will initially operate from Chubu to Fukuoka, Sapporo, and Seoul Incheon, before adding Sendai and Taipei. Read More » In late July, AirAsia Japan will take delivery of its first of ten-on-order A320s from Airbus, JA01DJ, with the second, JA02DJ, due in August. By the end of 2016, the budget start-up plans to operate six A320s, then adding five each year through to 2018 when it expects to operate a fleet of 16.
Meanwhile, Haneda-based LCC Solaseed Air will commence international operations in October with the launch of charter flights between Miyazaki and Kaohsiung. At press time, Solaseed operated a fleet of twelve B737-800s connecting Naha and Haneda with Kagoshima, Kobe, Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki, and Nagasaki. ANA Holdings, parent of All Nippon Airways (ANA) owns 8.56% of Solaseed, though it virtually controls over 36% when combined with the 27.75% share controlled by the Development Bank of Japan, with which ANA enjoys rapport.
In the interim, ANA will relaunch services to Oceania with a daily Haneda-Sydney B787-9 rotation from December 11. It last operated flights to both Sydney and Brisbane in 1999. The Star Alliance carrier will compete with Oneworld members Japan Airlines (JAL) and Qantas Airways which offer daily B777-200ER and B747-400 services to Tokyo albeit to Narita.
