J-Air is a Japanese regional airline with its headquarters at

Itami Airport , often referred to as , is the primary domestic airport for the Kansai region of Japan, including its major cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. It is the airport closest to Osaka, being 11 km (7 mi) north of Osaka Station, as well as ...

near

Toyonaka is a city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 399,263 in 179651 households and a population density of 5700 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . It is a suburban city of Osaka City and a part of the ...

Osaka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Nara ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and its main base at Itami Airport. J-Air previously had its headquarters in

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

Aichi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,461,111 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the ...

. Its operations include scheduled

passenger A passenger is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The vehicles may be bicycles, ...

services to 17 destinations across regional

, under

Japan Airlines Japan Airlines (JAL) is the flag carrier airline of Japan. JAL is headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport, Narita and Haneda Airport, Haneda airports, as well as secondary hubs in Osaka's Kansai ...

flight numbers. The airline has a fleet of 35 aircraft, consisting of

Embraer 170 The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of four-abreast, narrow-body, short- to medium-range, twin-engined jet airliners designed and produced by Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer. The E-Jet was designed to complement Embraer’s earlier ...

s and 190s linking tier-two and tier-three cities in Japan as to bypass JAL's congested hub in Tokyo (both Narita and Haneda). J-Air is a wholly owned

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of Japan's

flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by that government for international operations. Histo ...

, Japan Airlines (JAL) and an affiliate member of the

Oneworld Oneworld (Computer reservations system, CRS: *O, stylised as oneworld) is a global airline alliance consisting of 14 member airlines. It was founded on 1 February 1999. The alliance's stated objective is to be the first choice airline alliance f ...

alliance. The airline was founded on 8 August 1996, when JAL restructured JAL Flight Academy and J-Air was separated; and began operations as a separate entity from Hiroshima-Nishi Airport on 1 November. Faced with limited opportunities for route expansion at Hiroshima, the airline relocated to its new home at

Nagoya Airfield , also known as Komaki Airport or Nagoya Airport, is an airport within the local government areas of Toyoyama, Komaki, Kasugai and Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Prior to 2005 it was an international airport, but is now a domestic secon ...

, after the opening of Chūbu Centrair International Airport, on 17 February 2005. In the

fiscal year A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...

ended 31 March 1999, J-Air, together with its sister airlines within the JAL Group, carried over 32

million 1,000,000 (one million), or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian ''millione'' (''milione'' in modern Italian), from ''mille'', "thousand", plus the ...

passengers and over 1.1 million

ton Ton is any of several units of measure of mass, volume or force. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. As a unit of mass, ''ton'' can mean: * the '' long ton'', which is * the ''tonne'', also called the ''metric ...

s of

cargo In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in cas ...

and

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

History

JAL Flight Academy (JFA) was established by

(JAL) in April 1991, as a flight training school

based at Omura Airport,

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

. It provided conversion training for its

flight engineer A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is a member of an aircraft's flight crew who is responsible for monitoring and operating its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referr ...

s to become

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

s. In April 1991, a new division of JFA was created to operate scheduled services to succeed the troubled ''Nishi Seto Airlink'' services, a commuter airline serving cities in western

. Since the introduction of the 19-seats Jetstream 31s (JS31) in September 1991, the aircraft progressively replaced the

Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante The Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante (English: ''pioneer'') is a Brazilian twin-turboprop light transport aircraft designed by Embraer for military and civil use. The EMB 110 was designed by the French engineer Max Holste; it had been designed in ...

inherited from ''Nishi Seto''. In August 1996, JAL Flight Academy was restructured, J-Air was separated and established as a wholly owned regional subsidiary

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

of Japan Airlines on 8 August. On 1 November, the airline inaugurated its first flight from Hiroshima-Nishi Airport and was building up service on smaller-demand domestic routes, which larger aircraft could not serve economically. However, the

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

subsidy A subsidy, subvention or government incentive is a type of government expenditure for individuals and households, as well as businesses with the aim of stabilizing the economy. It ensures that individuals and households are viable by having acc ...

was terminated at the end of the 2000

and the airline was required to become self-sufficient. As part of its domestic

marketing strategy Marketing strategy refers to efforts undertaken by an Organizational structure, organization to increase its sales and achieve competitive advantage. In other words, it is the method of advertising a company's products to the public through an est ...

, JAL found a

niche market A niche market is the subset of the market on which a product is appealed to a small group of consumers. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the ...

where the 100-plus-seats

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

s were too large and frequent services were in demand, and began repositioning the airline. Fifty-seats

Bombardier CRJ200 The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 (previously Canadair CRJ100 and CRJ200) are regional jets designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace between 1991 and 2006, the first of the Bombardier CRJ family. The ''Canadair Regional Jet'' (CRJ) pr ...

s were introduced and progressively replaced the five JS31s until completion in August 2003. Despite the introduction of the CRJ200s, there were limited opportunities for route expansion from its home at Hiroshima-Nishi Airport. The airline decided to move to

, after the opening of Chūbu Centrair International Airport. On 17 February 2005, J-Air formally relocate to its new home at Nagoya Airfield. In order to strengthen the recognition of the JAL brand and improve customer convenience, the airline disposed its own flight numbers and changed to JAL flight numbers from 1 April 2005. At the same time, it formally ended flight to Hiroshima-Nishi which has been the airline base for almost 9 years with the last flight to Miyazaki. On 1 April 2007, J-Air, together with four of its sister airlines within the JAL Group, joined

and became a Oneworld affiliate member. On 18 June, JAL signed a purchase agreement with

Embraer Embraer S.A. () is a Brazilian multinational aerospace corporation. It develops and manufactures aircraft and aviation systems, and provides leasing, equipment, and technical support services. Embraer is the third largest producer of civil air ...

for ten

jets, with options to acquire another five aircraft. The contract value was worth approximately

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

435

, if all the options are exercised. The aircraft will be used for linking tier-two and tier-three cities in Japan as to bypass the airline's congested hub in Tokyo. The aircraft was configured to seat 76 passengers in a single-class layout and was designated for J-Air. The first aircraft was delivered on 3 October 2008, received the type certification from the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) on 27 October and operated its first flight in February 2009. J-Air has been reported by Japanese newspapers and television to be leaving

in a phased transition with many flights leaving October 2010 and all flights leaving by end of March 2011.

List of events

Destinations

J-Air operates to the following destinations (as of October 2019):

Codeshare agreements

J-Air has

codeshare agreements A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

with the following airlines: *

China Airlines China Airlines (CAL; zh, t=中華航空, poj=Tiong-hôa Hâng-khong, p=Zhōnghuá Hángkōng, first=t, c=, s=) is the state-owned flag carrier of the Taiwan, Republic of China (Taiwan). It is one of Taiwan's two major airlines, along with E ...

Fleet

Current fleet

, J-Air operates the following aircraft:

Former fleet

J-Air formerly also operated the following aircraft types:www.jair.co.jp/about/ayumi.html
in Japanese)

JAL Mileage Bank

Historical liveries

J-Air had many liveries over the years. In the following order:

1991 to 2002: J-AIR livery

A fusion of the J-AIR letters with a red square separating the 'J' and the 'AIR' titles, and a grey band feature on the fuselage.

2002 to 2011: Arc of the Sun livery

After Japan Airlines (JAL) and Japan Air System (JAS) merged, the Tokyo office of Landor and JAL worked together again to create a new brand identity. Landor devised a livery referred to as the "Arc of the Sun". The 2000s rebranding began in April 2002 and was completed in April 2004. The brand identity firm designed 300,000 specific items for JAL. The JAL acronym remained, but it was changed to include a curved bar, which replaced the simple red square and gray rectangle used from 1989 (1991 For J-AIR). The curved bar was likened to a samurai sword. The tail now featured a quarter sun outlined in silver. JAL changed its branding again on 1 April 2011, reverting to the original 1959 brand, with slight modifications, as part of their post-bankruptcy rebrand.

2011-Present: Tsurumaru J-Air livery

The J-Air livery is called the ''tsurumaru'' (鶴丸) or "crane circle." It is an image of a Japanese red-crown crane with its wings extended in full flight. The Tsurumaru logo of its parent (Japan Airlines) was created in 1958 by Jerry Huff, the creative director at Botsford, Constantine and Gardner of San Francisco, which had been the advertising agency for Japan Airlines from its earliest days.

Gallery

Showing what J-Air (in Japanese) calls or called the aircraft. Also, the liveries are in order.Aircraft types are in order o
www.jair.co.jp/about/ayumi.html
(in Japanese)

J-Air Livery

File:J-AIR BAe 3217 Jetstream Super31 (JA8865 981) (4080605968).jpg, BAe Jetstream 31 File:JA204J CRJ.200 J-Air NGO 2-MAY03 (8407938253).jpg,

Arc of the Sun Livery

File:J-Air, CRJ-200, JA209J (17165929830).jpg,

Bombardier CRJ-200 The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 (previously Canadair CRJ100 and CRJ200) are regional jets designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace between 1991 and 2006, the first of the Bombardier CRJ family. The ''Canadair Regional Jet'' (CRJ) pro ...

File:J-Air, ERJ-170, JA220J (17353115351).jpg,

Tsurumaru livery

File:J-Air, CRJ-200, JA201J (17353485185).jpg,

File:J-Air, ERJ-170, JA223J (16733231643).jpg,

File:Embraer ERJ-190STD ‘JA252J’ J-Air (47601840951).jpg, Embraer 190

Historical logos

File:Jair90s.svg, 1991–2002 File:Japan Airlines logo (2002–2011).svg, 2003–2011 File:J Air logo.png, 2011–present File:J-AIR logo 2011.svg, alt=Anthhowner, 2011–present (another version of the J-Air logo)

References

Notes

General references

External links

* * {{Airlines of Japan Airlines established in 1996 Regional airlines of Japan Companies based in Nagoya Japan Airlines Oneworld affiliate members Japanese companies established in 1996 Japanese brands