TOKYO - JAPAN'S All Nippon Airways said on Wednesday it was slimming down its services to cope with the economic crisis, switching to smaller planes on several key routes to Europe and North America.
ANA, Japan's second biggest carrier, said it would stop using jumbo 747s on flights from Tokyo to Paris and Frankfurt from later this year. It will also introduce smaller planes between Tokyo and Washington.
It announced further reductions in its services to China. Routes from Nagoya in central Japan to Tianjin and Guangzhou will be suspended by late March, while flights from Tokyo to Guangzhou will be reduced.
'ANA will reduce capacity in line with shrinking demand on routes linking Japan to Europe and North America, as well as further adjusting capacity to China and the rest of Asia,' the company said in a statement.
ANA said last week it would suspend flights from Japan to various other locations across China, while it will also reduce services to Mumbai following terrorist attacks on the Indian financial capital in November.
The carrier expects to reduce its international flights by 8.6 per cent and its domestic flights by 4.8 per cent in the year to March 2010.
Global airlines are scrambling to respond to the turbulence unleashed by the global economic crisis.
In October, ANA slashed its full-year net profit forecasts by more than one third. Earlier this month the airline named a new president to pilot it through the difficult times. -- AFP
