Skymark Airlines could be a Delta target as Airbus & Intrepid oppose an ANA-led restructure

It was not Japanese aviation's proudest day when All Nippon Airways was selected to sponsor the re-rehabilitation of bankrupt Skymark Airlines, the country's third-largest airline. Putting Skymark under the wing of ANA thereby returned air transport to an ANA-JAL duopoly that the Japanese government has for years worked in vain, and perhaps unenthusastically, to prevent.

Now foreign forces may reverse the situation in a challenge to Tokyo's preferred political outcome. Airbus and lessor Intrepid represent the majority of Skymark's debt, allowing them considerable weight over Skymark's restructuring plan - if a Tokyo court, undoubtedly under political pressure, gives airtime to non-Japanese concerns. At the centre of the dispute are Skymark's discarded A330 and A380s that are customised and difficult to place with other airlines. It appears Airbus and Intrepid expected ANA to offer a satisfactory solution for the aircraft but now there is none.

Airbus and Intrepid may prefer Skymark to restructure with the help of a different airline that will remedy the A330/A380 situation. Skymark has been shopped around to most of the world's airlines; China's HNA put in an offer; Delta could be a candidate, still lacking a Japan solution. A Skymark independent of ANA is in Japan's interest, if the country can accept a foreign airline as its partner.