is a low-cost airline headquartered in Kozunomori, Narita, Japan. The airline began operations in August 2014, having originally planned to begin operations in autumn 2013. It is a subsidiary of

Japan Airlines , also known as JAL (''Jaru'') or , is an international airline and Japan's flag carrier and largest airline as of 2021 and 2022, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport, as w ...

History

Spring Airlines Spring Airlines Co., Ltd. () is a low-cost carrier with its headquarters in the Homeyo Hotel () in Changning District, Shanghai, China. While the company adopted the English name "Spring Airlines", the Chinese name literally means "Spring Autumn ...

announced in 2011 that it had plans to establish a subsidiary in Japan; it would be the first Chinese airline to do so. Spring was required to find one or more local partners due to Japanese legal restrictions that would limit its investment to a minority stake. When it launched, the airline was 33% owned by

, a Chinese low-cost carrier, with the remainder held by various Japanese investors. The airline is now majority-owned and controlled by

The airline received an

air operator's certificate An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets, and system in pla ...

on 17 December 2013, having filed in September 2013 with 1.5 billion yen of

equity capital In finance, equity is ownership of assets that may have debts or other liabilities attached to them. Equity is measured for accounting purposes by subtracting liabilities from the value of the assets. For example, if someone owns a car worth $ ...

, of which Spring Airlines invested 33%. The remainder of the airline's capital was provided by Japanese financial institutions, IT enterprises and trading companies, among others. There were plans to raise a further 4.5 billion yen of capital prior to commencement of operations. Japanese travel agency JTB announced in March 2014 that it would invest in Spring Airlines Japan and enter a partnership with the airline to provide Japan tour packages to Chinese customers. Spring Airlines Japan planned to use primarily Japanese staff, such as retired

(JAL) pilots. Its head of operations, Minoru Uchida, was formerly a JAL pilot.

Destinations

The airline serves the following destinations:

Fleet

As of August 2019, Spring Airlines Japan fleet consists of the following aircraft: The aircraft are fitted in a 189-seat configuration with 18 seats (the first three rows) curtained off as a premium cabin. Spring Airlines Japan took delivery of its first aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, on 17 July 2013. Although Spring Airlines uses

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...

aircraft, the 737 was chosen for its Japanese subsidiary due to the Boeing's greater popularity among Japanese airlines and the relative ease of finding 737-qualified pilots.

References

External links

Website
(Japanese) {{airlines of Japan Airlines of Japan Airlines established in 2012 Companies based in Chiba Prefecture Japanese companies established in 2012 Low-cost carriers Multinational joint-venture companies