Qantas Airways, Japan Airlines and Mitsubishi Corp. said they will launch a new budget airline, Jetstar Japan, by the end of next year, as competition heats up in the low-cost Japanese market.
The airline will be one-third owned by each company and aims to offer fares that are 40 per cent below existing domestic prices. Jetstar Japan flights are set to commence from the end of 2012, by which time Japan Airlines' rival All Nippon Airways will have two ventures up and running - Peach Aviation and AirAsia Japan with Malaysia's AirAsia.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce called it a "historic" step for Jetstar, which is the Australian airline's budget offshoot and also the Asia-Pacific's fastest growing carrier, carrying almost 20 million passengers a year.
"This is a major opportunity in a major market," he said, adding that Qantas had a proven ability to operate low-fare airlines.
"It is, we think, the first joint-venture partnership of its kind between an Australian company and two iconic Japanese brands."
Despite a surging yen and a recent post-earthquake slump in tourism to Japan, the domestic low-cost market is being eyed as a major growth opportunity.
Japan's high fuel taxes and landing fees have made it difficult for airlines to introduce low-cost level fares but this is changing, say analysts, amid more "open skies" deals with other nations and future increases of capacity.
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