Airport News Japan

FDA to Serve Fukuoka-Shizuoka Route - Inherits Route after JAL Withdrawal

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An FDA aircraft parked at its base Shizuoka Airport.

On November 2, Fuji Dream Airlines (FDA, based in Makinohara, Shizuoka Prefecture) revealed that it intends to open a route between Mt. Fuji Shizuoka and Fukuoka in the 2010 fiscal year.

The route will be inherited from JAL (Japan Airlines), which announced it will completely withdraw service to Mt. Fuji Shizuoka Airport, and FDA aims to offer new service on the route. After FDA receives its third airctaft Embraer ERJ-175 in the spring of 2010, the airline plans to operate two to four roundtrip flights per day with ERJ 170s or 175s (seats 76 and 84 passengers respectively). Detailed schedules have not yet been drawn up.

After beginning service in July of this year, FDA is flying four daily roundtrip flights in total from its hub at Mt. Fuji Shizuoka to Komatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima. Using regional jets, which have good operating efficiency, the carrier has a perfect performance record for the three months since service began, excluding cancellations due to typhoons.

JAL is continuing to turn around its business operations, and this is the first time that it has announced a withdrawal from a domestic route that will be inherited by another carrier.

Fuji Dream Airlines FDA (Japanese)Mt. Fuji Shizuoka Airport