Industry Addendum
Japan Airlines forms GDS joint venture and signs Satair A350 supply contract
April 1st 2019
Intended to target the specific travel needs of Japanese travelers, Japan Airlines (JAL) and Travelport Worldwide have created a joint venture Global Distribution System (GDS) from Travelport Japan K.K. and JAL’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Axess International Network. Read More »
Combined, Travelport Axess International will provide the Japanese travel industry and its customers with access to GDS platform Axess, Travelport GDSs, Apollo and Galileo and New Distribution Capability (NDC) content. Travelport will be the majority partner in the joint venture with the new company to be formally established in June. Travelport Japan K.K. and Axess will continue to operate independently until a program of gradual integration commences later in the year.
JAL executive officer international passenger sales, Yoriyuki Kashiwagi, said: “We believe the future of travel will be transformed by technological innovation. I am confident that Travelport Axess will help Japanese travel agents respond to growing global demand by offering services based on state-of-the art technology.”
“Through a forward thinking combination of Axess’s local expertise and Travelport’s API-based commerce platform technology we will bring greater choice and exceptional performance to our Japanese customers and travelers,” said Travelport chief commercial officer, Stephen Shurrock.
Separately, JAL and Airbus subsidiary, Satair, have agreed to a multi-year end-to end supply chain package for expendable materials for the carrier’s A350 fleet. The Airbus subsidiary said the service will commence in June after the delivery of the first of 31 A350s to JAL.
Satair introduced its Integrated Materials Service (IMS) in response to customer demand for a fully integrated expendable inventory, the company said. It is a customized solution developed in partnership with each Satair airline customer. IMS includes planning, sourcing, purchasing. logistics and inventory management.
“IMS combines its forecasting and planning activities worldwide with a customer’s consumption data and Airbus OEM technical knowledge,” Satair CCO, Paul Lochab said. “By purchasing large volumes, IMS provides competitive pricing. IMS commits to material availability of expendables and will reduce and stabilize JAL’s total cost of ownership.”
JAL executive procurement officer, Atsushi Maeda, said the “A350 will play an important role for JAL. We believe this agreement will provide safe operations at the highest level an opportunity to optimize our maintenance costs as well as enhancing our relationship with Satair”. JAL has ordered 18 A350-900s and 13 A350-100s and also holds options for 25 of the type.
Satair is a global leader in the commercial aircraft aftermarket that supports the life cycle of an airliner with a suite of material management products. It holds exclusive or primary distribution arrangements with aerospace manufacturers and supplies parts to airline customers and third party MROs.
