Japan Airlines vicitim of Japan economics

Japan Airlines, a former state-owned flag carrier that was once a source of national pride, has become one of the highest profile victims of the country's long economic malaise. JAL's rise and fall mirrors the nation's economic "miracle" after World War II as well as its years of stagnation after the bubble burst in the 1990 s. The airline was established in 1951 , half controlled by the government. It made its international debut in 1954 , connecting Tokyo, Honolulu and San Francisco. Flying to 217 airports in 35 countries and regions, the biggest carrier of the world's second-largest economy is saddled with huge debt and filed for bankruptcy Tuesday in a court-led rehabilitation process. With estimated debts of about two trillion yen (22 billion dollars), a JAL bankruptcy would be the biggest failure outside the financial sector since World War II, according to Tokyo Shoko Research, an advisory firm. Despite the airline's current woes, Japan's government said it will do everything possible to ensure that JAL keeps flying during a restructuring that is expected to include drastic route reductions and thousands of job cuts. Its landing slots also remain coveted, with US carriers American Airlines and Delta Air Lines locked in a bidding war for a slice of JAL as they look to increase their share of the Asian market. Sporting its trademark crane logo, JAL rapidly widened its operations at home and overseas during the 1960 s and 70 s, at one stage becoming the world's largest carrier in terms of regular flights. Disaster struck in 1985 when a JAL jumbo jet crashed into a mountain in central Japan, killing 520 of the 524 people aboard in the worst single-airplane accident in aviation history. As it battled to overcome the tragedy, the carrier was fully privatised in 1987 and expanded its fleet in the early 1990 s, a move that soon turned out to be a financial burden as the economic "bubble" burst. The carrier now has 279 aircraft, including 113 leased planes, most of them Boeing jets. It transported about 53 million passengers last fiscal year, 41 million of them on domestic routes. As the global aviation industry was battered by the fall-out from the September 11 , 2001 attacks as well as the SARS and bird flu scares, JAL plunged into huge losses and sought massive credit lines from the government. In a bid to survive the tougher business environment, JAL and domestic carrier Japan Air System merged to form JAL Group, changing the logo to the current "Arc of the Sun" resembling the national flag.