Japan Airlines Corp. said Thursday it will slash 1,400 more jobs by the end of March 2008 through attrition and transfers in an effort to counter high fuel prices.
The personnel reduction is part of the carrier's fiscal 2005-2007 business plan, which previously said there will be 4,500 layoffs in the 2004-2006 period. A total 5,900 jobs, or 13.5 percent of staff employed in fiscal 2002, will be cut.
"We will make the cost reforms to create a business structure that can generate profits, despite a surge in oil prices and other external negative factors," JAL Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Isao Kaneko said in Tokyo.
As the holding company plans to merge with its group firms, Japan Airlines Domestic Co. and Japan Airlines International Co., by the end of fiscal 2006 in an effort to streamline operations, it will reduce the number of people in management to 41 from 62.
JAL President Toshiyuki Shinmachi will replace Kaneko as CEO in late June as part of a management reshuffle.
JAL Domestic President Mitsuo Komatsubara will resign from his position and JAL International President Katsuo Haneda will take on the additional post.
The nation's largest carrier aims to cut 75 billion yen in fiscal 2007 with the workforce cuts.
JAL revised its profit targets for fiscal 2005 and 2006 downward, mainly blaming the continuing high fuel prices.
The business plan sets a target of 17 billion yen in net profit in fiscal 2005, down 63 percent from the initial target announced a year ago.
The profit goal in fiscal 2006 is now set at 34 billion yen, down 37 percent.
As of last March, JAL was expecting the price of oil to be around $32 per barrel in fiscal 2005 and 2006; it now expects it to be around $54 per barrel.