Japan airlines seeks bankruptcy protection

Japan Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection today in one of the biggest corporate failures in Japanese history.

A state-backed corporate turnaround agency said today that it had received confirmation from the carrier that it had applied for protection from creditors under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law.

The widely expected move is the culmination of a process which began in October when Asia’s biggest airline first turned to the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan for help.

It was saddled with debts of 1.5 trillion yen (€11bn), falling passenger traffic and swelling pension costs.

JAL will now embark on a massive overhaul under a pre-packaged restructuring plan to shed the fat and inefficiency that undermined its finances.