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Skymark Airlines

The Skymark Airlines is a low-fare airline in Japan. The Skymark airline is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It operates scheduled passenger services on Japan's regional routes and international charter flights to Seoul. Its main base is Tokyo International Airport (Haneda).

The Skymark Airlines was established in 1996 and it started operations on 19 September 1998, as an open sky domestic airline following deregulation. The major shareholders are Shinichi Nishikubo (35.47%), President of the company, and H.I.S. (27.62%). It has 821 employees till date.

Skymark Airlines operates scheduled flights from Tokyo International Airport in Ota, Tokyo to:

Fukuoka Airport in Fukuoka, Fukuoka
Kobe Airport in Kobe, Hyogo
New Chitose Airport in Chitose and Tomakomai, Hokkaido
Naha Airport in Naha, Okinawa.

The Skymark Airlines offers one-way fares as low as ¥5,000 on the Tokyo-Kobe route. Skymark Airlines, the largest discount carrier in Japan, came back from two years of losses by doing something the biggest airlines in the country have failed to do. It has won new domestic customers and hold the prospect of at least a 35 percent gain for shareholders.

The Skymark Airlines is now attracting passengers with fares as much as 48 percent cheaper than Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways amid a slump in Japanese wages. The airline, which made a first-quarter profit, is also cutting costs by converting to a single type of aircraft, mimicking the strategy of Southwest Airlines, the largest low-fare carrier, and Ryanair, the biggest discounter in Europe. Skymark's stock is going to gain as investors put a premium on its growth prospects.

The rise of the Internet has made it easier to compare prices, and that has helped discount airlines. Skymark Airlines basic fare to fly from Tokyo to Sapporo in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido in October is ¥16,000, compared with ¥30,700 at All Nippon and Japan Air, according to fare announcements from the carriers. Like most discount airlines, Skymark Airlines does not offer free drinks, snacks or newspapers on most flights.

The discount airline still has room to grow. It flew 1.7 million passengers in the first six months of the year 2007, less than a 10th of the 20.5 million on Japan Air or the 21.3 million on All Nippon. The Skymark Airlines, which flies only within Japan, has moved quickly to cut routes that were not making money. That helped it fill 75 percent of seats on flights in the three months to June, compared with an average of 56 percent a year earlier.

By comparison, Japan Air filled 59.2 percent of its seats last quarter and All Nippon filled 59.9 percent. The two bigger airlines have increased the pace of cuts to unprofitable routes since Skymark's changes last year. Still, Japan Air backed off from ending flights between Matsumoto and Sapporo earlier this year amid local opposition. Skymark never treated routes as a public responsibility and so did not hesitate to cut them. Skymark ended scheduling different types of flights to three destinations at the beginning of the year 2006 and started flying between Tokyo and Sapporo, the busiest air route in the world according to figures compiled by Japan Air, with almost 10 million passengers in 2006.

The Skymark Airlines has also saved on fuel,training and maintenance by converting its entire fleet of 11 planes to Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The carrier has also added its fifth Boeing 737-800 among its aircrafts. The company plans to replace its six Boeing 767-300ERs by March 2010.

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