Japanese government suggested to merge JAL and ANA for countermeasure of the pandemic. Under the economic crisis especially for aviation companies, it looks one option. But is this really good option? – In my opinion, No.
Difference of taste
Because of the origin of both companies, these two companies have different taste with each other. JAL, originally owned by the government, has warm service. On the other hand ANA, private company from its origin, has functional ‘cool’ service in other words ‘business-like.’
I love both companies. I want to use ANA for business trips, and when it comes to vacation, JAL is good. Since these two are Japanese companies, quality of service is ultimately high of course.
Now ANA has Peach Aviation as its sub-brand and JAL is going to launch ZIP Air Tokyo, but still the price is higher considering other countries situation.
Price
Usually ticket price of Japanese aviation is pretty high. Price of Tokyo – Osaka round trip would be around 25,000 JPY with discount campaign applied, only 600 km distance between though. This is the price under 2 mega-carriers existence. How will it go if there’s only one carrier?
Airline alliance
JAL belongs to OneWorld and ANA to Star Alliance. I don’t know which is chosen when it merged, but the presence of Japanese aviation would be sink more. Basically Japanese airlines presence is not high in spite of the market scale, because we have JR. It is giant competitor for Japanese aviation. That’s why they offer lifetime loyalty program for Japanese citizens. When we reach certain boarding numbers in a year, after that we can get lifetime OneWorld Sapphire or Star Alliance Gold as long as holding credit card issued by the carriers.
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