TOKYO — A Japanese airline revoked its ban on in-flight smoking today in a bid to attract customers and revive profits.
Despite some complaints from nonsmokers, Hokkaido International Airlines decided the step was the only way for it to survive increasingly heated competition, company official Naoki Ikeda said.
A fourth of all seats on its flights between Tokyo and Sapporo, on the northern island of Hokkaido, have been allotted to smokers starting today. The airline operates two planes, one seating 286 passengers and the other 258.
Ikeda said the move was inspired by Japanese airline All Nippon Airways, whose earnings improved as it waited longer than competitors to introduce smoke-free flights. Hokkaido has the nation's highest smoking rate.
Years of fare cuts have exacted a toll on Japanese carriers.
The rivalry worsened in February, when a new law allowed major airlines to slash their Tokyo-Sapporo fares to far below the $163 price for a Hokkaido International Airlines one-way ticket.
Since price competition on the route was liberalized, the airline has been able to fill only about half the seats on its six daily round-trip flights, Ikeda said. That contrasts with an 80 percent occupancy rate when the fledgling airline took to the skies in 1998. Due to the drop in ridership, the airline reported an $11.8 million pretax loss for the six months ending in September.
Sapporo, located on the island of Hokkaido, is 520 miles north of Tokyo.