Internal struggles have long been the norm at Japan Airlines Corp., but the management row that surfaced in February goes beyond the usual factional strife.

The Feb. 10 revolt by four top executives at the air carrier's international operations unit stalled management efforts to draw up a midterm business plan for the period starting in fiscal 2006. The plan, which was supposed to be released by the end of February, was postponed to Thursday.

The four board members at Japan Airlines International Co. demanded the resignation of the group's president, Toshiyuki Shinmachi, and two other executives, with about 400 middle managers signing a petition calling for the removal of the executives.

To put an end to the turmoil, JAL on Wednesday announced a new management team, with Shinmachi officially resigning in June, to be replaced by Senior Vice President Haruka Nishimatsu. Shinmachi will become chairman without the right of representation.

But regardless of who takes the helm and the content of the midterm business plan, industry watchers say it is uncertain whether the new management can unite the troubled group's employees and turn things around.

"The internal dispute surely dealt a heavy blow to JAL, whose image has already been tarnished by a spate of safety problems," said Yasuhiro Matsumoto, a senior analyst at BNP Paribas Securities (Japan) Ltd.

The country's top air carrier is struggling amid surging oil prices and falling passenger numbers, due in part to continuing safety problems.

With the difference in financial performance between struggling JAL and its higher-flying rival, All Nippon Airways Co., becoming ever more apparent this fiscal year, Matsumoto said this is no time for JAL managers to fight among themselves.

Last month, JAL reported a group net loss of 23 billion yen for the first three quarters of fiscal 2005 and an operating loss of 800 million yen. The carrier expects to see a net loss of 47 billion yen and an operating loss of 34 billion yen for the full year to March, compared with its initial forecast of 17 billion yen in net profit and 60 billion yen in operating profit.

ANA, meanwhile, posted 29.9 billion yen in net profit and 89.9 billion yen in operating profit for the first three quarters of fiscal 2005, despite soaring fuel prices, and revised its earning projections upward for the full year to March.

"The threat of the 2002 integration of the former Japan Airlines Co. and Japan Air System Co. prompted ANA to streamline its business," while JAL rested on its dominant position as the nation's flagship carrier, Matsumoto said.

Factional disputes between JAL's sales and administrative executives have long been a fact of life, with one camp prevailing every five years or so, according to aviation analyst Kazuki Sugiura.

Isao Kaneko, who was long involved in JAL personnel management, served as president for some seven years. He took an autocratic approach, thrusting aside leading figures in the other faction, Sugiura said.

When Shinmachi, from the air freight division, was picked to succeed Kaneko in 2004, frustration among sales executives mounted, Sugiura said.

The 2002 integration of the old JAL and JAS under a holding company further complicated the problem. The JAL group has been trying to overcome differences between the two carriers while the integration increased the number of unions with which management had to deal with to nine.

JAL, the holding company of Japan Airlines International Co. and Japan Airlines Domestic Co. since April 2004, plans to merge with the two firms in October to complete the integration.

When the carrier reported first-half losses last November, it announced an average 10-percent wage cut for some 22,000 employees to start in January, aiming to slash 6 billion yen in annual personnel costs.

However, JAL failed to reach an agreement with any of its nine unions, forcing it to postpone the pay cuts at least until April.

"Although the amount of costs it can slash is not that much, carrying out the pay cuts is inevitable for JAL to show that all the workers are striving as one to revive its business," Sugiura said.

Eight of the nine unions say they will try to block the wage cuts, while one says it will negotiate if management clarifies its plans to revive the firm.

Sugiura said the biggest task the new management faces is to complete the merger in October, which the company hopes will further streamline operations by standardizing the salary systems of the former JAL and JAS.

Because this is sure to result in further salary reductions, workers are against the plan, Sugiura said.

"If JAL fails on this, the integration of the two carriers will mean nothing" but turmoil for the airline.