Jaunted

Japan Airlines Corp will keep its partnership with American Airlines... and end talks with Delta Air Lines... the Asahi newspaper reported... JAL had been leaning toward joining hands with Delta before filing for bankruptcy... JAL's new chief executive officer, Kazuo Inamori, and officials of the ETIC have decided that switching alliances is too risky and could hinder their ability to turn around the airline quickly, the Asahi said on its website. In addition to the burden of upgrading computer systems and other costs, the risk that JAL and Delta would not be able to receive regulatory approval for anti-trust immunity also played into the decision, the Asahi said.

Yeah, who knows. The anti-trust stuff doesn't really make much sense. Delta seemed pretty confident that they could secure the immunity. But even if they couldn't - which is to say, if Delta and JAL weren't allowed to collude on prices - most number crunching still showed JAL coming out ahead of where they'll be in oneworld. That's one of the many, many reasons so many people were convinced they'd move.

So maybe it's a branding issue, and they want to project stability in the aftermath of the bankruptcy. Or maybe they just didn't want to bother with the computer upgrades. Or maybe they really are afraid that it would just be too much too soon. This thing has been such a clusterfark for so long that we've given up doing anything but reporting to you what we know when we know it.

Though if folks were looking for reasons to question the judgment of JAL's new CEO - who, lets remember, has exactly zero airline industry experience - this might not be he worst place to start.

[Photo: J o / Wiki Commons]

Related Stories:
· JAL to stay with American, end Delta talks: report [Reuters]
· Japan Airlines [Jaunted]
· American Airlines [Jaunted]