*Rakuten Travel gets off to a good start on selling international flight tickets

Rakuten Travel (http://www.mytrip.net/), the Japan's leading online travel agent, has started booking and selling international flight tickets since January 27 this year. Rakuten Travel Chairman Hiroshi Mikitani revealed at an opening party inviting airlines, hotels and media, "For the first month, we enjoyed three times more sales than we had expected. I expect that the online travel agent will outgrow real travel agents. We will make efforts to form a big travel service for more than 28 million Rakuten members." About the next business step, Rakuten Travel President Yoshihisa Yamada said, "We hope to start selling dynamic packages combining hotels with air tickets within this year."

This Week Headline
*Rakuten Travel gets off to a good start on selling international flight tickets
+Mikitani says Rakuten Travel will surpass JTB in booking hotels several years later
*Japanese departures increased by 11% to 1.4 million for February
*Japanese cruise travelers grew particularly in Caribbean and Asia
*Narita partially restricts the operations on the second runway3
*The Haneda new runway project is awarded to a JV at 598.5 billion yen
*CSN is ambitious to expand its flight network to Japan
*Oneworld launches a new Japanese website for more commitment to the market
*International passengers were largely up for a calendar year of 2004
*Kansai international flight passengers grew by 15% for February

*HKTB and CPA to develop a joint travel campaign for young generation

Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) and Cathay Pacific Airways (CPA) held a jointpress conference on March 15 to announce that they will jointly develop a travel campaign named 'Escape to Hong Kong (Hong Kong Tohikoin Japanese)' for the first half of FY2005 from April to September 2005. Kunio Kano, HKTB Regional Director-North Asia, explained thecampaign, "It is a strategic campaign particularly targeting young generation. We are proposing that Hong Kong is a sophisticatedand diversified destination for short-stay tourists. I believe thatHong Kong can offer opportunities for Japanese tourists to release their stresses and to be given energies."

This Week Headline
*HKTB and CPA to develop a joint travel campaign for young generation
+The conventional campaign is progressing in parallel
+HKTB aims to increase Japanese visitors by4% for 2005
*California Disneyland stresses on partnership with the travel industry of Japan
+Package is still value-added even though the FIT market is growing
+Offering happy proposals for both travelers and the travel industry
*JAL is reprimanded for a series of incidents with "operation correction order"
*Shinmachi will take office as CEO earlier than the original plan
*A Russian airline to fly into Haneda for its charter services
*Newcomers opened new flight routes one after the other
*JAL air transport result for January 2005
*A new cargo operator Jet 8 hopes tobegin its business next spring

*JAL further enhances its flight network between Japan and China

JAL Group announced on March 7 this year that it will begin connection services with China Southern Airlines at Beijing Airport. With the new service, JAL will offer connection services on nine domestic routes from Beijing, including those with Hainan Airlines. In addition, JAL will begin code-sharing flights with Xiamen Airlines and Hainan Airlines on their domestic routes in China. JAL Group will furtherexpand its flight network between Japan and China as it offers 237 flights weekly for 13 Chinese cities on 29 routes except code-sharing flights and connection services with Chinese carriers.

This Week Headline
*JAL Group aims to get the international flight business into the black
+Stricter cost management to generate profits
*Shinmachi is promoted to JAL Group CEO
*JAL further enhances its flight network between Japan and China
*Overseas travel transactions grew by 16.6% for January this year
*COA reaches E-ticketing rate of 99.7% in Japan
*ANA introduces the 3D sound technology for its in-flight entertainments
*SKY got its balance sheet into the black for the first quarter
*Sagawa is launching a new cargo airline in this April

*Fifty percents more Japanese visitors visited China for 2004

China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) recently reported that the number of Japanese visitors to China for a calendar year of 2004 was up48.7% to 3,347,400, compared with a year ago. The number was 14.4% more than that for 2002 and the highest record ever. At the same time, the number of Chinese visitors to Japan certainly increases mainly because of the expansion of the Chinese regions available for group tourist visa into Japan.

This Week Headline
*Fifty percents more Japanese visitors visited China for 2004
*KAL expects more Korean passengers will use its Centrair flights
+ Future new flight services depend on results of charter flights
*Tokyu reduced revenue but ensured net profit of 1 billion yen
*Four times more international flight passengers used Haneda
*Six percents more passengers used Narita for January
*Domestic flight passengers for January increased
*Two new cargo operators will fly into Centrair
*Nagoya Airport is not so damaged byopen of Centrair
*AIR NEXT is ready for taking off