Japan Airlines Chairman Yoshiharu Ueki on Monday expressed high expectations for the opening of its route connecting Narita International Airport near Tokyo and Vladivostok in the Russian Far East region late this month.

The airline is set to offer daily flight services on the route from Feb. 28. "We'll operate flights every day (on the Narita-Vladivostok route). That's our competitive edge," Ueki told a press conference in Moscow.

Rival All Nippon Airways is scheduled to launch its Narita-Vladivostok route on March 16 with two weekly services. The number of its weekly flights on the route will be increased to three on March 29.

"Vladivostok is increasingly attracting attention as a city where people from Japan can experience Russia after a two-and-a-half-hour flight," Ueki said. "Also thanks to an easing of visa requirements for travel to Russia, I believe that Japanese visitors to the country will continue increasing."

"We've wanted to fly into a place where we don't offer services now," Ueki also said. Meanwhile, Ueki said JAL hopes to work with ANA to let more and more people in Japan know that Vladivostok is a fantastic city.

On Monday, JAL announced that it and Russian carrier Aeroflot will launch daily code-sharing flights between Tokyo International Airport at Haneda and Moscow on March 29. The code-sharing partnership will also cover 10 routes in Japan to and from Haneda and as many in Russia to and from Moscow.

"We believe we can offer more satisfactory services to our customers," Ueki said, citing Haneda's superiority to Narita in terms of proximity to the city center of Tokyo.

JIJI Press