Spring Airlines Japan bets on post-pandemic China tourism boom

Spring Airlines and Japan Airlines are anticipating a post-pandemic tourism boom between China and Japan for their joint-owned budget carrier, even though Japan still lags behind major economies in reopening its borders. Spring Airlines Japan had operated seven routes from Narita to Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, Wuhan and other cities, but five of them were suspended due to the virus. Even so, the carrier is eyeing new routes to Chinese coastal cities with populations of more than 10 million people, potentially by March 2024, Akira Yonezawa, said Spring Japan’s new CEO and former JAL executive. Even amid tight restrictions, Japan is becoming the top destination among Chinese for post-virus travels, with 18% saying they want to visit, according to the Pacific Asia Travel Association. Some 90% of Spring Airlines Japan’s international passengers are nationals from China. “Japan is close to China so it’s easy to travel and there’s a lot of expectation” for traffic between the countries, Yonezawa said. On top of that Spring Airlines offers “a deep relationship” and a platform to sell tickets in China, the CEO added. Japan was betting on a tourism boom from the Olympics, with Chinese visitors pouring money into restaurants and souvenir shops, although that dissipated with the decision to hold a spectator-less games the closing of the borders in 2020 because of the pandemic. Even so, Japan is sticking to its target of attracting 60m annual tourists by 2030.<br/>