The budgetdraft approves a large increase of the FY2006 airport development budget

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) released the budget draft for the FY2006 airport development for the Civil Aviation Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) on December 20 this year. According to that, Airport Development Special Account for FY2006 largely increases by 16% to 572.6 billion yen compared to the FY2005 budget. It is noteworthy that MOF approves 162.4 billion yen for theHaneda Airport Re-expansion Program (100 billion yen more than the FY2005 budget) as MLIT requested. Accordingly, the FY 2006 budget for major core airports development is totally up 33% to 312.2 billion yen compared to the FY2005 budget.

The informal notice also includes increase of the budget for enhancement of safe operations and security countermeasures to 12.5 billion yen for FY2006 from 10.2 billion yen for FY2005, the budget for enhancement of inspection systems to airlines to 257 million yen for FY2006from 137 million yen for FY2005 and the budget for improvement of air transport services to 16.9 billion yen for FY2006 from 15.7 billion yen for FY2005.

This Week Contents
Headline
The budget draft approves a large increase of the FY2006 airport development budget
Airport
*The Haneda re-expansion program will enter the full-scale development phase
Airline
*ANA unveiled the first gold-livery B737-700
*Newcomers contributed to increase domestic passengers for November
*LOT will serve direct charter flights from Narita to Warsaw next summer
*Aeroflot hopes to expand its flight businesses for Japan after 2007
Column "COCKPIT"
Kaibara said, "ASDF has enough air defense capability." (Story continuedfrom the last issue)

ANA President is positive in challenging Chicago flight again

ANA President Mineo Yamamoto revealed at an interview with the Wing AviationPress that ANA is positive in restarting Narita-Chicago flights, ashe said that corporate demand on the route has been increasing. However, it is true that ANA is hard to ensure a Narita departure slotfor a new flight service before FY2009.

Yamamoto also said that it is difficult for ANA to fly into emerging India or Russia with the current fleet lineup. For China, ANA covers majordestinations today, and if the bilateral aviation talk between Japan and China agrees additional flights, ANA may increase flights on the existing routes, not open a new route.

This Week Contents
Headline
ANA President is positive in challenging Chicago flight again
Airline
*JAL and Yahoo! Japan tie up for booking and selling of domestic flight tickets
*Star Flyer took delivery of the first A320
*JAL and ANA have taken emergency measures for their B777 engines
*Emirate will start serving Dubai-Centrair flights next June
Airport
*Narita estimates to handle 2% more passengers during this New Year holidays
*Kansai reduced international passengers for November
Defence
*JCG has selected two SAAB340Bs and two EC225s
Column "COCKPIT"
Power of "Emperor Kaibara"

ANA is confident of ensuring full-year profit on the international flight business

ANA Executive Vice President Katsuhiko Kitabayashi, who is in charge of international & regulatory affairs and alliance & international affairs, said at an interview with the Wing Aviation Press that ANA will be able to maintain profiton the international passenger flight business for a full year of FY2005 as well. Also, he revealed that ANA is paying attention to the latest B737-700s operations on both domestic and international routes and new flight businesses for India or Russia to reinforce theprofitability on the international passenger flight business. "It is important for the ANA Group to seek more effective flight operations," he added.

Kitabayashi mentioned passenger demands on international routes for the second half of this fiscal year: "While business passenger demandsfor Europe and America are still high, tourist passenger demands for China are slow to recover. However, I believe that ANA must strengthen promotions for China ahead of other destinations."

This Week Contents
Headline
ANA is confident of ensuring full-year profit on the international flight business
Airline
*Air Do largely increased both revenue and profit for the first half
*Russian Pulkovo will serve five charter flights for Haneda next year
*NCA and Cargolux work together for B747-8F
*SKY made an emergency landing due to unusual engine trouble
*Commuter operators totally carried 4.9%more passengers for the first half
Airport
*Centrair growth has cooled down after the Expo ended
Administration
*Japan and Thailand have agreed to increase flights
Column "COCKPIT"
Target fascination