JPY18 billion capital injection for Spring Airlines Japan

Just over 18 months after the Japan-based low cost carrier subsidiary of China’s Spring Airlines began operations, it is to receive a welcome capital boost in the form of JPY18 billion (US$151 million) from local Japanese investors, including a major real estate company and consumer electronics retailer Bic Camera. Under current legislation, as the airline is based in Japan, overseas investment has to be limited to one third, the current stakeholding of Spring Airlines.
The low-cost carrier began operating out of terminal 2 at Tokyo Narita International Airport in July 2014 and unlike Spring Airlines which favors the Airbus A320, Spring Japan operates Boeing 737s, having recently strengthened its fleet by taking delivery of two such aircraft which are part of a consignment of ten being retired by airberlin that are destined for Spring Airlines Japan. The 737 is the plane of choice for most Japanese airlines.
Spring Japan’s CEO, Wang Wei, confirmed that the airline had recently received approval from Japan’s aviation regulator to operate international routes and is planning to open new routes from Tokyo, including Chongqing and Wuhan, in February 2016. Spring Airlines had expected its passenger numbers to reach 1 million on Sino-Japan routes in 2015, while at present the airline operates certain routes from Shanghai to Ibaraki, Takamatsu, New Chitose, Osaka, Nagoya, Asahikawa and Tokyo (Haneda). Last year, Spring Airlines Japan announced that it intended to establish an overseas operating base in Osaka and opened two more routes, Lanzhou-Osaka and Qingdao-Osaka.