Japan Airlines System Corp. is considering raising fares on almost all domestic flights in April to reflect a planned increase in landing fees, company officials said Wednesday.
"The rise in airport landing fees will cost us around 4 billion yen per year, so we will have to consider increasing domestic fares," a JAL official said.
The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry will raise airport landing fees starting April 1.
While the JAL official said the details have yet to be decided, the company is expected to bump up fares by around 100 yen to 200 yen per flight.
Rival All Nippon Airways Co. has already unveiled plans to raise the price of its regular tickets, which are often used by business travelers, by about 5 percent, or roughly 1,200 yen.
ANA is also expected to spend about 4 billion yen a year to cover airport landing fees, an official for that airline said.
Prompted by JAL's move, ANA could also change its stance and decide to pass on the landing fee increase to a wide range of airfares.
JAL initially considered raising only the prices of its regular tickets, but the transport ministry has been critical of such a move, and the carrier apparently decided to increase the prices of almost all tickets, including discount tickets.
Japan Airlines System was formed Oct. 2 after Japan Airlines and Japan Air System integrated operations.