Japan Airlines Group (JAL) announced today, passenger traffic on international and domestic routes for the traditional Japanese “Golden Week” vacation, stretching for 8 days this year from April 28 to May 5, 2010. During this period, JAL carried 234,152 passengers on international flights - 13.8% down against the same period in 2009, and 1,016,046 passengers on domestic flights, 10.8% up against a year before.

The seat capacity on JAL international passenger routes is 21.6% less than last year. By region, there were cancellations due to the active volcano in Iceland as well as the unrest in Bangkok, while traffic to Taiwan and Oceania showed a minor increase. The resulting overall load factor is 80.0% which represents an increase of 7.1 percentage points against previous year.

There is a significant increase in passenger numbers on domestic flights to most regions in Japan this holiday season while capacity was trimmed down by 4.3% from the same period last year. Consequently, the seat load factor of domestic flights is 10.1 percentage points higher than previous year at 74.4%.

JAL Group operated 28 additional flights including charter, to such international destinations as Honolulu, Guam, Palau, Bali, Cairns, Sanya in China and Cebu in the Philippines, as well as 54 flights on domestic Japan routes to support the demand for travel to such areas as Okinawa (Naha), as well as Sapporo.

(Source: Travel Daily Asia)