JAL Group

JAL Group

Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. (JAL) (日本航空株式会社, Nihon Kōkū Kabushiki-gaisha?, TYO: 9201), is an airline headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan. It is the flag carrier of Japan and its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport), as well as Nagoya's Chūbu Centrair International Airport and Osaka's Kansai International Airport. The airline and four of its subsidiaries (J-Air, JAL Express, JALways, and Japan Transocean Air) are members of the Oneworld airline alliance.

JAL group companies include Japan Airlines for international and domestic services; JALways for international leisure services; JAL Express for international and domestic low-cost services; Hokkaido Air System, J-Air, Japan Air Commuter, Japan Transocean Air and Ryukyu Air Commuter for domestic feeder services; and JAL Cargo for cargo and mail services. JAL group operations include scheduled and non-scheduled international and domestic passenger and cargo services to 220 destinations in 35 countries worldwide, including codeshares. The group has a fleet of 279 aircraft. In the fiscal year ended 31 March 2009, the airline group carried over 52 million passengers and over 1.1 million tons of cargo and mail.

JAL was established in 1951 and became the national airline of Japan in 1953. After over three decades of service and expansion, the airline was fully privatized in 1987. In 2002, the airline merged with Japan Air System, Japan's third-largest airline and became the sixth largest airline in the world by passengers carried. Japan Airlines is currently an official sponsor of Japan Football Association and Japan national football team.