Japan Airlines Corp. will temporarily cut the number of flights from Narita airport to Shanghai and Sao Paulo, Brazil, to improve profitability by adjusting capacity, according to the struggling carrier.
Weekly round-trips to Shanghai will be cut from 28 at present to 21 between Jan. 18 and March 27, while those to Sao Paulo will be reduced from three to two from Feb. 1 to March 27.
It has yet to decide how many flights it will operate on the routes thereafter.
JAL also said passenger numbers on international routes operated by the group's airlines slipped 4.5 percent in October from a year earlier to 961,990, declining for the first time in two months.
The decline was due to a 9.5 percent drop in the number of passengers to Southeast Asia and a 21.4 percent dive in people flying to South Korea.
But the number of passengers flying to Guam increased 18.9 percent and those to European destinations rose 10.0 percent.
JAL's performance contrasts with that of rival All Nippon Airways Co., which saw an increase of 8.1 percent in group passenger numbers on international routes in October, up for the third consecutive month.
JAL said passenger numbers on the group's domestic routes fell 13.8 percent in October to 3.35 million, following a decline of 5.5 percent the previous month.