Zipair Tokyo to start passenger flights on 16 October

Japanese start-up Zipair Tokyo will begin passenger flights to Seoul Incheon on 16 October after a planned earlier launch was delayed by the Covid-19 crisis. The South Korean capital will be served twice weekly from Tokyo Narita, says the JAL low-cost subsidiary. It says it will be the only Japanese carrier to connect the two cities, but notes that the schedule awaits government approval. Established in 2018, Zipair Tokyo had planned to launch passenger flights in May, serving Bangkok first and then Seoul from July. Instead, the carrier began cargo flights to Seoul from Narita on 12 September. “Due to the impact of the new coronavirus infection, we were forced to postpone the launch of our passenger flights,” states the airline’s president Shingo Nishida. “We had more time to prepare for the start of passenger flights than we had originally planned”. In February, Nishida said the airline aimed to establish a “new basic” class of medium- to long-haul airlines, sitting between the low-cost and full-service categories that have the aviation industry “polarised”. There are plans to operate transpacific routes.<br/>