JAPAN. The outbound travel market continues to soften, driven by a combination of factors including onerous fuel surcharges on air tickets and the troubled economic climate, according to Travel Journal International (TJI) Online*.
August figures, just out, for Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, underline the steepness of the decline, particularly to long haul destinations, such as Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii.
And outbound travel sales in August at Nippon Travel Agency dropped by -13.7% year-on-year, “reflecting the continued downward slide of travel from Japan, even during the peak summer months”, said TJI.
Japan Airlines’ passenger traffic in the month slipped by -13.3% to 1,086,837 while All Nippon fell -9.9% to 370,333 year-on-year.
All destinations were affected , TJI said. JAL posted a double-digit decline for five destination areas, with the number of passengers on the Guam and China (affected temporarily by the Olympics in Beijing, which softened Japanese arrivals) routes plunging -32.0% and -26.6% respectively from a year ago. Southeast Asia and South Korea performed slightly better but still fell.
All Nippon Airways also reported a double-digit drop in passengers for North America and Asia/Oceania.
TJI published the following breakdown of international passenger performance by region for the two airline groups in August:
Japan Airlines Group
– Pacific: 242,001 (-12.6%)
– Europe: 111,093 (-12.2%)
– Southeast Asia: 350,975 (-9.7%)
– Oceania: 36,858 (-16.5%)
– Guam: 35,567 (-32.0%)
– South Korea: 176,342 (-1.7%)
– China: 132,859 (-26.6%)
All Nippon Airways Group:
– North America: 82,086 (-11.6%)
– Europe: 46,524 (-0.8%)
– Asia/Oceania: 241,723 (-10.9%)
Despite a +5.6% gain in group sales during August, thanks to active education group travel demand, Nippon Travel Agency said overall agent-planned tour sales slipped -17.3% year-on-year.
As reported, travel demand during the final quarter of 2008 is the lowest since the July-September 2003 period, when SARS affected outbound travel worldwide, according to the latest Diffusion Index (DI) from the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA).
*Editor’s note: The Moodie Report works closely with TJI Online, the largest English-language travel trade news source in Japan. Week in, week out, it provides timely and sharp analysis of the all-important Japanese travel market – international and domestic. To subscribe please visit https://tji.tjnet.co.jp. It comes with our highest recommendation.
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