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Japan urged to step up aviation competitiveness

  • Märkte: Oil products
  • 13.04.10

Singapore, 13 April (Argus) — Japan is being urged to cut its airport costs to make its aviation sector more competitive.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has told the Japanese government during a meeting in Tokyo yesterday that urgent action is needed to address cost issues if the country's airports and airlines are to compete in Asia-Pacific, the world's fastest growing aviation market.

“Japan must urgently put its aviation house in order to compete in the Asia-Pacific market,” said IATA director-general Giovanni Bisignani. “With the country's largest international carrier in bankruptcy… the government must aggressively and urgently address cost issues to rebuild competitiveness.” Japanese Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection in January, with it originally projecting losses for the fiscal year ending March of around ¥260bn ($2.8bn).

While the Chinese international market has grown from 500,000 seats a week to 1.4mn in the past decade, Japan has remained virtually unchanged with weekly international seats growing from 1.2mn to 1.3mn, Bisignani said. This has meant stagnating demand for oil products such as jet fuel, with Japan's economy returning to recession prompting the weakest domestic oil demand in 40 years.

Lowering airport fees and reducing duplicated infrastructure were issues that Japan needs to address. “Airports must be able to compete for hub traffic at Hong Kong, Inchon, Shanghai and Beijing to serve the growing Chinese market. But that won't happen with costs double that of successful airports like Singapore's Changi,” said Bisignani. The Kansai region, on Japan's main island of Honshu, has five runways at three airports serving 36mn passengers a year. “Singapore runs its successful hub serving 37mn passengers on just two runways and with much cheaper costs,” he added.

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