Flightless JAL pilots making debuts finally after 2010 bankruptcy

Around 100 people who joined Japan Airlines as pilot candidates but never had a chance to work in the air due to the airline’s 2010 bankruptcy are finally making their debuts on domestic flights. The bankruptcy led JAL to substantially cut its flight routes and freeze recruitment and training of pilots. Of its employees who joined JAL as pilot candidates, some left the airline to become pilots at other companies and others who stayed at JAL worked on the ground. After the airline rehabilitated itself with taxpayers’ money, it resumed training for would-be pilots in Oct 2012 and started hiring pilot candidates again in April 2015. The roughly 100 employees who are making or soon to make their debuts as domestic flight co-pilots are those who had seen their flight training frozen for the longest period of time among other JAL pilot candidates. <br/>