JAPAN AIRLINES DECLARES BANKRUPTCY

TOKYO : Japan Airlines went bankrupt Tuesday with 26 billion dollars of debt in one of the country's biggest ever corporate failures, beginning a painful overhaul involving more than 15,600 job cuts.

• JAL, a once-proud flag carrier now worth less than a jumbo jet, reassured passengers its flights would not be interrupted during the bankruptcy, which is similar to the process used to revive ailing US auto giant General Motors.
• Asia's biggest airline, which carries more than 50 million passengers every year, will slash 30 percent of its workforce and receive almost 10 billion dollars of public funds and emergency loans under a three-year turnaround plan.
• JAL said it aimed to "be reborn as a leading airline group".
• But transport minister Seiji Maehara warned the government would not keep bailing out JAL indefinitely, saying it would have pulled the plug on the group if it were not such an important company. "JAL will have to fly on its own after three years," he said. "Looking to the future for the aviation industry, we have to determine if two mega-carriers should exist or not."
• Japan's top carrier has fared much worse than smaller rival All Nippon Airways in recent years.
• Its shares plunged to an all-time low of just three yen (three US cents) at one point earlier Tuesday, reducing the market value of the group to about 90 million dollars, far less than even the cost of a new Boeing jumbo.
• The stock will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on February 20 or earlier, a move expected to wipe out shareholders' investments.

Source: ChannelAsia, AFP