Korean Air's Jeju - Narita Resumption, Skymark’s 737 MAX Delay & More

Welcome to the May 17, 2024, edition of the This Week in Japanese Aviation newsletter!

Over the last week, multiple route resumptions including Korean Air’s Jeju - Narita and Thai AirAsia X’s Bangkok - Nagoya were announced. Skymark Airlines also revealed the delivery of its first 737 MAX will be delayed by at least one quarter.

Continue reading to see what else happened in Japan’s aviation industry over the last seven days. While the highlights are below, other things happened too. As such, make sure to stop by Japan Aviation Hub.

Routes

Tianjin Airlines will resume its Tianjin - Nagoya Chubu route on May 29, 2024. With that, it will serve three destinations in Japan including Tokyo Haneda and Osaka Kansai.

Korean Air will operate three weekly roundtrips between Jeju and Tokyo Narita from July 19, 2024. The resumption comes over four and a half years after the route was terminated in late 2019 due to worsening relations between South Korea and Japan and the related drop in demand.

Thai AirAsia X will resume flights between Bangkok and Nagoya on August 1, 2024. The airline previously connected the two cities until March 2020 when it suspended the route due to the pandemic.

Tigerair Taiwan will operate scheduled charter flights from Taichung to Tokyo and Nagoya in July and August 2024. The general public can book the flights.

WestJet plans to make Calgary - Tokyo Narita year-round from the 2024 winter schedule. The flights, which operate daily during the summer schedule, will operate three times a week during the winter schedule.

Fleets

Skymark Airlines announced the delivery of its first 737 MAX will be delayed at least until the second quarter of FY2025 (July to September 2025) due to delays at Boeing. Originally, it planned to receive the first airframe in the year's first quarter.

PaxEx

All Day Dining Grande Aile, a restaurant in Haneda Airport Garden, joined Priority Pass. Members can enjoy a two-hour lunch buffet at the restaurant including soft drinks between 11AM and 3PM every day.

JAL announced its next MYAKU-MYAKU JET will be a 787-8. The special livery will feature the mascot of EXPO 2025, which will be held in Osaka from April 13 to October 13, 2025.

Ibex Airlines debuted a new passenger boarding stairs vehicle which it developed jointly with Shinmei Industry and Centrair GSE Service. The new vehicle is designed specifically for use with Ibex's sole aircraft type, the Bombardier CRJ-700.

Operations

On May 10, 2024, JAL flight 312 from Fukuoka to Tokyo Haneda got too close to the runway, stopping behind a stop line at Fukuoka Airport. As a result of that, JAL flight 3595 to Matsuyama had to abort its take-off. Since flight 312 did not enter the runway, the JCAB did not classify the incident as "serious."

Did You Know That…

The Airbus A300-600ST, better known as Beluga, made multiple trips to Japan to deliver Airbus-made helicopters.

That’s it for this week - thank you for reading and have a great week!

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