JAL Special

Having flown my whole life with this airline i must make a brief and somewhat important note on my blog tonite.

Looking through this month's inflight magazine SKYWARD i found a note that i will share with whoever reads this...

This is a message from Kazuo Inamori (chairman) and Masaru Onishi (President & COO)

"Welcome Aboard and Thank You for Choosing the JAL Group.

We are delighted to welcome you aboard this JAL Group flight today, and we hope your time with us will be comfortable and relaxing.

This month, JAL bids farewell to its remaining Boing 747-400 aircraft, the jumbo jet that is fondly known as "Queen of the Skies" by aviation enthusiasts worldwide. This aircraft has been a great asset to the JAL Group, entering into service on the Tokyo-Seoul, Tokyo-Fukuyama and Tokyo-Okinawa routes in April 1990. In 2004, the JAL Group owned as many as 44 747-400s, including freighter aircraft.

As we seek to adapt more swiftly to changes in today's business environment, we have decided on a strategy to utilize smaller aircraft and higher flight frequencies for greater profitability and better fuel efficiency. With the decommissioning of the 747 Classics in July last year, the retirement of the 747-400 fleet on March 1 will cease JAL's use of four-engine jets. As we phase out the larger aircraft, the role of ferrying large numbers of passengers on heavily traveled domestic and international routes will pass over to the twin-engine 777. JAL will also take delivery of the latest in Boeing's line of twin-engine jets - the mid-size Dreamliner 787, which is highly anticipated for its fuel efficiency, environmentally progressive credentials and improved passenger comfort.

The final flight of JAL's last 747-400 is from Honolulu to Narita Airport on February 28, after more than 20 years of reliable service carrying our customers safely around the world. We hope that you will have had the opportunity to fly in one of our 747-400 before the end of its service this month.

We sincerely appreciate your continued support and future patronage of the JAL Group, and we hereby invite you to share freely with us your thoughts about our service."

Well thats it. The morning after i write this will be the last flight for JAL's last 747-400. A bit of a sad day for those of us with memories from those planes.

Personally i remember spending many hours waiting to board these planes, getting JAL toys from the flight attendants, learning some japanese with the movies, being amazed at all the shows they had inflight, cutting out cool stuff from the magazines and of course flying business class out of luck at times.

I guess the good news is that they are going back to their previous nostalgic crane logo (WIN).

Heres a picture of this fantastic plane with my favorite logo for JAPAN AIRLINES.

a.