Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) will cut about 3,000 jobs as part of a move to reduce staff costs by some 50 billion yen ($413 million) in fiscal 2009/10 from the current year, a financial daily reported on Saturday.
The Nikkei said JAL, Asia's biggest airline by revenue but ranked sixth by market value, have presented the mid-term restructuring plan to its key lenders and have requested fresh borrowing for this fiscal year totalling 60 billion yen. The Development Bank of Japan and Mizuho Corporate Bank are among the banks likely to offer the lending, Nikkei added.
The troubled carrier is set to announce on Tuesday the business plan, which covers the fiscal year starting April and through fiscal 2010 that runs until March 2011, the paper said.
JAL will trim its flight-related workforce of 30,000 or so by around 3,000, and continue to cut base salary by 10 percent in the upcoming fiscal year from April 1 and beyond, as part of measures to achieve the planned cuts in personnel costs.
Company officials could not be reached for comment. The airline's business has been hit by high fuel prices and sluggish demand on its domestic routes following safety mishaps, which have led customers to switch to rival All Nippon Airways (ANA).
JAL has forecast a 2006/07 group net profit of 3 billion yen but has said it would sell assets, including stakes in hotels it runs and its trading house subsidiary Jalux Inc, to realise that target. It is also expecting a profit boost of more than 25 billion yen from an overhaul of its pension system.
The carrier also aims to slash consolidated interest-bearing debt, which totalled 1.23 trillion yen as of March 31, 2006, to less than 1 trillion yen, through the restructuring steps, the Nikkei said.
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