<p>Asia’s biggest airline hopes to expand its businesses in Europe via the capital alliance with Air France-KLM, according to the Yomiuri newspaper, Japan’s top-selling daily. The report cited no sources and officials at the Japanese airline, known as JAL, could not be reached for comment Saturday.<br /><br />JAL said Friday it was considering various tie-ups with a wide variety of potential partners but nothing had been decided.<br /><br />JAL is in the midst of major restructuring as the airline incurred its biggest-ever quarterly net loss of ¥99 billion ($1 billion) in the three months to June. It has forecast a net loss of ¥63 billion for the current fiscal year to March 2010, and plans to cut the number of flights and slash costs by ¥53 billion during the current fiscal year and another ¥100 billion in the next fiscal year.<br /><br />Apart from Air France-KLM, JAL is also seeking a bigger capital injection from Delta Air Lines, the Yomiuri said.<br /><br />Delta — the world’s biggest airline operator — is considering making a cash infusion of a couple hundred million dollars to aid JAL, according to a person briefed on the talks Friday.<br /><br />In exchange for the infusion, the person said Delta could get a stake in JAL, an expanded presence in Japan and coveted access to the closest airport to the Tokyo business center. The Yomiuri said Delta could become a top shareholder of JAL. But the talks between JAL and Delta were in their preliminary stage, and it was unclear what form a partnership between the two airlines might take, said the person, who asked not to be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the discussions.<br /><br />Japan’s Nikkei business daily quoted a senior JAL official Saturday as saying the tie-up with Delta would be difficult due to the Japanese airline’s alliance with American Airlines.<br />JAL has a codeshare agreement with American Airlines as part of its participation in the oneworld alliance. Delta’s SkyTeam alliance currently doesn’t have a Japanese partner. Instead of Delta, JAL may seek a capital injection from American Airlines, the Nikkei said.</p>
<p>Asia’s biggest airline hopes to expand its businesses in Europe via the capital alliance with Air France-KLM, according to the Yomiuri newspaper, Japan’s top-selling daily. The report cited no sources and officials at the Japanese airline, known as JAL, could not be reached for comment Saturday.<br /><br />JAL said Friday it was considering various tie-ups with a wide variety of potential partners but nothing had been decided.<br /><br />JAL is in the midst of major restructuring as the airline incurred its biggest-ever quarterly net loss of ¥99 billion ($1 billion) in the three months to June. It has forecast a net loss of ¥63 billion for the current fiscal year to March 2010, and plans to cut the number of flights and slash costs by ¥53 billion during the current fiscal year and another ¥100 billion in the next fiscal year.<br /><br />Apart from Air France-KLM, JAL is also seeking a bigger capital injection from Delta Air Lines, the Yomiuri said.<br /><br />Delta — the world’s biggest airline operator — is considering making a cash infusion of a couple hundred million dollars to aid JAL, according to a person briefed on the talks Friday.<br /><br />In exchange for the infusion, the person said Delta could get a stake in JAL, an expanded presence in Japan and coveted access to the closest airport to the Tokyo business center. The Yomiuri said Delta could become a top shareholder of JAL. But the talks between JAL and Delta were in their preliminary stage, and it was unclear what form a partnership between the two airlines might take, said the person, who asked not to be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the discussions.<br /><br />Japan’s Nikkei business daily quoted a senior JAL official Saturday as saying the tie-up with Delta would be difficult due to the Japanese airline’s alliance with American Airlines.<br />JAL has a codeshare agreement with American Airlines as part of its participation in the oneworld alliance. Delta’s SkyTeam alliance currently doesn’t have a Japanese partner. Instead of Delta, JAL may seek a capital injection from American Airlines, the Nikkei said.</p>
