JAL and ANA: Zen and the Art
of Airline Maintenance — July 2021

As they emerge from the pandemic JAL and ANA seem set on preserving their domestic market as an island of competitive tranquillity while moderating, as far as is possible, the impact of further incursions from foreign carriers in their international markets.

Japan’s experience of Covid-19 has been different from that of Western countries. Vaccination rates until very recently have been very low but so has been the Covid mortality rate (about 5% of the UK’s rate, for example). A national lockdown has not been imposed, apparently because it would be unconstitutional, but most prefectures introduced local restrictions, and international travel to/from the country has been very severely curtailed.