JAPAN Airlines (JAL) will boost its New Delhi-Tokyo services to seven flights a week starting December 2012, up from the current five weekly flights.

The carrier operated daily services to New Delhi till 2009, when the global economic crisis forced it to trim its frequency.

Shelly Egbert, manager-sales, JAL said: “We will utilise (Boeing) 787 Dreamliner aircraft on the additional (New Delhi-Tokyo) flights.  We have all the necessary approvals required to begin the daily operations. At present, there is good demand (about 70 per cent load factor) on this sector.”

JAL recently deployed the Dreamliner on four out of five weekly flights on the route (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 3, 2012). A Boeing 777 plane is still being utilisied on one of the flights, and will be phased out in due course.

Ashwani Gupta, managing partner, Dove Travels Amritsar, said: “The daily service to New Delhi will play a significant role in increasing the traffic between the two countries. Indian travellers are keen to explore cities like Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, while Japanese travellers will have more flight options to explore Buddhist circuits in India.”