More wide-body domestic flights from JAL

With more than 40m overseas visitors to its home country expected for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Japan Air Lines (JAL) is bringing in wide-body Boeing B787 Dreamliners and Airbus A350s on domestic routes from this September.

The airline says the move is part of plans to boost capacity and quality of service in time for the Games as it replaces ageing B777s in the fleet with the newer, more comfortable aircraft.

The JAL A350, below, the first of which arrived in Japan on Friday, will start domestic service on 1 September with routes being added as more aircraft come into service. The Dreamliners will join in once deliveries start this autumn.

With large numbers of passengers travelling by air in Asia, using widebody aircraft for domestic routes is becoming common. Japan saw an average 4,719 such flights depart over summer 2018, with China and Hong Kong carriers close behind.

In a linked development, JAL has signed up media, entertainment and content marketing services provider Spafax to licence, curate and deliver its short-form inflight content, including TV shows, documentaries and compilations.

It is the first time in more than a decade the airline has appointed a new in-flight entertainment partner.

www.jal.co.jp/en

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William Tahil, France

Exactly why JAL originally wanted the A380 - to replace 747s being used on domestic flights in the 1990s. What happened?