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TOKYO : Japan Airlines has announced plans to cut 4,300 jobs over three years as part of a revival plan aimed at returning the carrier to steady profits in the face of high oil prices and sluggish demand.
JAL, Asia's largest carrier, said that it aimed to reduce its personnel costs by 50 billion yen (415.3 million dollars) by March 2008, and increase its fuel efficiency through hedging, lighter cabins and other measures.
JAL said it aimed to boost its workforce productivity by 10 percent while cutting just over eight percent of its 53,100 employees. The move comes less than two years after JAL announced it would axe almost 6,000 positions.
The carrier said it would continue to introduce more mid- and small size aircraft and retire old planes, reducing the ratio of large-size aircraft in its international fleet from 58 percent to 39 percent over the next four years.
JAL said that its business was "changing by the minute" in the face of fierce competition and high fuel prices.
The airline has also been hit by a series of highly publicised safety scares that sent customers into the arms of rival All Nippon Airways.
Earlier Tuesday JAL reported a net loss of 10.8 billion yen for the three months to December, the third quarter of the financial year, down slightly from a loss of 11.0 billion yen a year earlier.
Under its revival plan it aims to post net profits of 7.0 billion yen in the year to March 2008, rising to 37 billion yen in the year to March 2011.
This year it sees a net profit of 3.0 billion yen, after a loss of 47.2 billion the previous year.
In the third quarter JAL's operating losses shrank to 14.0 billion yen from 16.6 billion as revenue grew 4.9 percent to 584.1 billion yen.
"While sales rebounded after last year's decline in the wake of a string of safety problems, higher fuel costs weighed heavily on our profit margins," JAL executive officer Yoshimasa Kanayama said at a press conference.
"Looking at the revenue trend, we believe we have already gone through the very worst phase of the downtrend and that we are already on a recovery track," Kanayama said.
For the nine months to December as a whole JAL's net losses came to 9.3 billion yen, down from 23 billion a year earlier.
JAL's fuel bill for the nine-month period was 320.4 billion yen, up 12.8 percent from a year earlier.
- AFP/ms
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