Rescue plan for JAL this week

Airline expected to reveal heavy H1 losses

A government backed rescue plan for Japan Airlines (JAL) is expected to be announced this week.

The plan will be revealed before the struggling airline posts what are expected to be heavy H1 losses on Friday (November 13).

But the rescue plan may not include state guarantees on bridging loans from banks, Reuters reported.

The agency quoted Ryota Himeno, a transport sector analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, as saying: "Without a state guarantee, I think the banks will be reluctant to provide bridge loans to JAL."  

Hirohisa Fujii, the Japanese finance minister, told a press conference: "I don't know what the details of the rescue package will be.

"But it's realistic to expect that a decision will be reached this week."  

Seiji Maehara, the transport minister, said at the conference that the government task force,  established to draw up a new restructuring plan for the airline, had a "good idea"  how it would  tackle the issues of the bridge loans and JAL's pension shortfall which is estimated at JPY330bn €2.5bn), Reuters said.

When the task force was set up last month, the carrier was said to need a loan of about JPY180bn (€1.34bn) as it could run out of cash by November.

Earlier rescue plans for the carrier have been rejected by Japan's government and by its creditors who include the state-owned Development Bank of Japan, the Mizuho Corporate Bank, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

Any new plan is expected to include at least 9,000 redundancies, the axing of 50 routes and pay and pension freezes.

There is also speculation that any new deal will include the standing down of the current airline president Haruka Nishimatsu.

There was also a report that once a rescue plan is in place, JAL will resume talks with its oneworld partner American Airlines and with Delta Air Lines from the rival SkyTeam alliance over one taking a stake in the Japanese carrier.

www.jal.com  www.aa.com  www.delta.com