Qantas' Jetstar Japan partner might start its own budget airline

Qantas Airways' partner on its low-fare Japanese airline Jetstar Japan is considering starting its own cut-price carrier, raising the prospects of it one day becoming a rival to Qantas in the country's growing budget market. Japan Airlines, or JAL, and Qantas set up Jetstar Japan six years ago, and were trailblazers in bringing the budget airline model to Japan, a country where bullet trains offer a compelling alternative to flying. Qantas and JAL each own 33% of Jetstar Japan, but JAL is now looking at starting a new, wholly-owned budget airline to compete better as Japan catches up with the rest of the world by embracing low-cost air travel, the company's vice chairman Junko Okawa said in media interview last week. Jetstar is the country's largest budget airline, operating 22 Airbus A320 aircraft flying around 100 services a day between 12 Japanese cities, and to four international destinations - Shanghai, Manila, Taipei and Hong Kong, while Qantas' wholly owned off-shoot Jetstar Australia flies several routes between Australia and Japan. JAL's new airline would be focused on longer services to Europe and North America - outside the range of Jetstar Japan's current fleet - by 2020, when Tokyo hosts the Olympic Games, according to an unsourced report in the Nikkei Asian Review. Neil Hansford, an analyst at Strategic Aviation Solutions, said that Qantas had provided all the expertise when Jetstar Japan was founded, and found it surprising JAL might now start its own budget airline. "It makes you wonder whether there’s a relationship problem between Qantas and JAL," he said.<br/>