ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines said their subsidiaries allowed workers who drive baggage cars and catering vehicles at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to cheat on written driving license exams.
A total of 78 drivers at ANA cheated on tests conducted by two subsidiaries between August 2022 and February 2024, Japan’s biggest airline said in a statement. That included invigilators allowing candidates to look at textbooks while taking their exams, it said.
The airline has allowed workers who took the test again under "appropriate circumstances” to resume their duties and vowed future exams will be undertaken appropriately, it said.
Meanwhile, JAL said it returned 11 drivers’ permits to authorities after discovering they cheated on tests conducted by two subsidiaries between May 2022 and January 2024. The company, which conducted an internal investigation after receiving a report from an employee, is no longer allowing online exams.
The airline reported the incident to the transport ministry and the civil aviation bureau, it said.
Japan’s aviation industry has come under increased scrutiny this year after a number of high-profile incidents. In January, a collision at Haneda left five of six crew aboard a coast guard plane dead after it was struck by a JAL Airbus jet landing on the runway. Shortly after, a Korean Airlines plane clipped a stationary Cathay Pacific Airways jet at an airport in Sapporo, on the country’s northern island.