Addendum
Japan Air Commuter launches ATR services
May 1st 2017
Japan Airlines subsidiary, Japan Air Commuter (JAC), launched its first ATR 42-600 flight from Kagoshima to Yakushima, a mountainous island in the Amani archipelago, on April 26. Read More » The JAC aircraft also performed its first return journey between Kagoshima and another Amani island, Okinoerabu, on the same day. The new ATR operator is a breakthrough for the manufacturer in Japan, a key growth market for ATR. Visitors to Japan are expected to reach 40 million in 2020, the year of the Tokyo Olympics.
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The Amani islands are a designated national park and are in line for UNESCO World Heritage listing in 2018. ATR’s turbo prop aircraft are ideally suited to service the rugged approaches of the airports in this area of southern Japan, especially as 35% of Japan’s domestic air routes are less than 300 nautical miles (555 kilometres) in distance.
