AirAsia Japan to be the 5th LCC in 5 years for Japan. Opportunities for all, despite slowing growth

AirAsia Japan has submitted to Tokyo an application for an Air Operator's Certificate to re-enter the Japanese LCC market, its first JV having collapsed in 2013. AirAsia Japan envisions a Mar/Apr-2016 launch from Nagoya, an airport without the heavy competition or curfew AirAsia Japan Mk I encountered at its previous base of Tokyo Narita.

The start-up plans to complete 2016 with six A320s and grow by five aircraft each additional year. In Jul-2015, Jetstar Japan operates 20 A320s, the most of any new LCC, followed by Peach with 16 A320s. AirAsia Japan will be out to show it has learned from past mistakes and can apply its pan-Asian model, with some localisation, in multiple markets.

Japan continues to benefit from this influx of carriers. Domestic growth has slowed to 2%, but Japan saw 92m domestic passengers in its latest reporting year, the highest since 2007. AirAsia Japan will be unique along with Spring Airlines Japan for not being affiliated with ANA or JAL, which directly account for 79% of the market and indirectly for over 90%. Slowing domestic growth has however come with faster 9% outbound international growth. 1H2015 inbound tourism is up a remarkable 46% and Japan will need to set more ambitious targets than 20m visitors in 2020. 2015 could welcome 18 million visitors, up from 10 million in only 2013.