Skymark Airlines: История японского лоукостера

Low cost airline of Japan

Skymark Airlines Incorporation (business) (Inc.) is a Japanese low cost airline headquartered at Haneda Airport in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan. It also operates a base at Naha Airport. It is the only Japanese airline offering regular scheduled services at Ibaraki Airport north of Tokyo. Skymark was the first low cost airline established in Japan. Internet entrepreneur Shinichi Nishikubo controlled the company from 2003 to 2015, when the carrier filed for bankruptcy protection after attempting a fleet and service expansion. In August 2015, Skymark creditors agreed to restructure the airline under the control of Japanese private equity fund Integral Corporation (50.1%), with minority investments from All Nippon Airways (16.5%), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and the Development Bank of Japan (33.4%).

Skymark Airlines was founded in November 1996 as an independent domestic airline after deregulation of the Japanese airline industry and started operations on 19 September 1998. another major early investor was the leasing company Orix. Its initial business plan called for it to be headquartered at Itami Airport in Osaka. Takashi Ide, former head of British Airways' operation in Japan, was hired as the company's CEO in 1998. Skymark was able to obtain six slots at Haneda Airport in Tokyo in March 1997 and moved its headquarters to the Hamamatsucho district of Tokyo in March 1998. Its first scheduled flight from Haneda to Fukuoka was on 19 September 1998; it added routes from Itami to Fukuoka and Sapporo in 1999, but suspended these routes in 2000 in order to offer more frequencies on the Haneda Fukuoka route. In 2002, Skymark took delivery of a third Boeing 767 aircraft and began service on the Haneda Kagoshima route, as well as charter service from Haneda to Seoul. In 2003, with a fourth 767 dry leased (leased without any crew members) from All Nippon Airways, it began service to Aomori and Tokushima. By using more efficient aircraft and systems developed in house, Skymark attempted to undercut JAL and ANA on costs in order to offer lower fares. Skymark had a code sharing partnership with Japan Airlines starting with a Haneda Osaka Kansai service in 2005–06, JAL withdrew from Kobe in 2010, while Skymark developed Kobe into a secondary base. Skymark purchased the naming rights for the Kobe Sports Park Baseball Stadium from 2005 to 2010. Skymark announced in April 2010 that it would commence a "Narita Shuttle" service from Narita International Airport to Asahikawa, Sapporo, Fukuoka, and Okinawa in late 2011 and early 2012.

In November 2010 Skymark announced negotiations with Airbus for an order of four Airbus A380 aircraft and two options, making it the first Japanese airline to order the type. The airline announced its intent to use the aircraft on long haul trunk routes out of Narita Airport such as London, Frankfurt, Paris and New York, and that they would be operated in a two class, 394 seat configuration – with 114 seats in business class and 280 in a premium economy class. Nishikubo envisioned an unheard of fully flat product in economy class, which the Skymark team calculated would break even at a one way fare of 100,000 yen. Skymark attempted a more competitive domestic offering by executing leases for seven Airbus A330 300 aircraft in July 2012. Skymark announced that it would outfit these aircraft in a 271 seat single class premium configuration with 38 inch seat pitch and 22 inch seat width, tentatively called "Green Seats" and comparable to the domestic "Class J" offering on Japan Airlines, Skymark also had plans to install "Green Seat" cabins on its 737 fleet to create a 2 class configuration but cancelled the plan in early 2014 in favor of keeping a single class 737 fleet for competition with other LCCs. Somewhat controversially, Skymark announced that A330 flight attendants would wear miniskirt uniforms, in contrast to Skymark's usual polo shirt uniforms, for the first six months of operation of each route. The Japan Federation of Cabin Attendants publicly complained about the idea, claiming that the uniforms were unsafe to the women wearing them and would lead to harassment and objectification. Starting in 2013, Delta Air Lines was highly interested in starting a codeshare agreement with Skymark, mainly due to Delta's expansion of its own Tokyo services. Following ANA's investment in Skymark however, the possibility of a codeshare agreement and further partnership with Delta was reduced.

Skymark's finances were hit hard by foreign exchange rate fluctuations. In February 2011, when Skymark placed its initial A380 order, the Japanese yen was trading at historically high levels of around 82 yen to the U. S. dollar. After the introduction of the Abenomics policy in late 2012, the yen plunged in value, reaching around 102 yen to the dollar in early 2015. Many of Skymark's major investments and expenses were denominated in dollars—including the A380 orders, the A330 leases and its fuel costs—while its domestic ticket revenue was in yen, and the airline did not engage in exchange rate hedging. Skymark recorded its first net loss in five years for the March 2013 – 2014 fiscal year. Airbus completed Skymark's first A380 in April 2014 and sent the aircraft to Germany for cabin installation. In May, Skymark requested to reschedule a meeting with a European bank involved in financing of its A380 order. Airbus interpreted this as a signal that Skymark sought to renegotiate the contract, and sent a team of financial advisors to Skymark's head office in June. After a week of meetings, they proposed an amendment of the A380 purchase agreement, with the condition that if Skymark did not meet a certain revenue target, Nishikubo would be required to sell his shares to an outside investor chosen by Airbus. Nishikubo rejected this proposal in early July, believing there was a significant chance that Skymark would miss the target. In late July, Airbus announced that it had terminated the airline's A380 orders, citing concerns over the airline's ability to fund the purchase in light of its poor financial performance. Nishikubo complained the airline was not given the opportunity to revise the contract, but simply received a fax notifying it of the termination. After further negotiations, Airbus sued Skymark for damages in a London court; it was reported that Skymark had already paid Airbus 26.5 billion yen for the aircraft and could face up to 70 billion yen in penalties. As the Airbus dispute lingered, Skymark pursued new sources of cash. It announced in November 2014 that it was exploring a cooperative relationship with Japan Airlines under which Skymark's 36 daily round trips to and from Haneda Airport would be code shared with JAL, subject to approval by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Skymark initially pursued JAL due to a perception that JAL could not threaten Skymark's independence; the terms of JAL's bankruptcy restructuring prevented it from making an investment in Skymark. However, the Japanese government pressed Skymark to make the codeshare trilateral with both JAL and ANA, reflecting the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's preference for ANA. Skymark also attempted a sale and leaseback of over 1 billion yen in equipment as a cash raising measure, negotiating with a JAL affiliated trading company and then with an ANA affiliated trading company. In January 2015, ANA refused to provide financial support to Skymark, and several investment funds also balked at the prospect of injecting cash into the company.

Skymark filed for bankruptcy protection under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law (equivalent to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States of America or an administration in the United Kingdom) at the Tokyo District Court in January 2015 after reporting ¥71 billion (or $571.3 million) in liabilities. It announced that Nishikubo would step down as CEO and would be replaced by CFO Masakazu Arimori. Skymark's restructuring plan, submitted to the court in May, called for turnaround sponsor Japanese private equity fund Integral to own 50.1% of the recapitalized company, ANA to own 16.5%, and the remainder 33.4% to be owned by an investment fund controlled by government affiliated Development Bank of Japan and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, with Integral providing the new chairman, DBJ providing the new CEO, and code sharing between Skymark and ANA. Intrepid Aviation and Airbus, who together held around two thirds of Skymark's debt, opposed the plan, and Intrepid submitted a competing plan which called for another (unspecified) airline to sponsor Skymark's restructuring. Intrepid reportedly approached several foreign airlines seeking support for this alternative plan. In the final creditor vote on 6 August 2015, the plan supported by ANA and Integral defeated a competing plan supported by Intrepid and Delta. The Delta plan was initially assumed to be the front runner based on Airbus's closer relationship with Delta, but Airbus ultimately switched sides and supported the ANA plan. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that ANA made a conditional offer in late July to purchase Airbus aircraft, which Delta did not match by a prescribed midnight deadline, leading Airbus to switch its stance on the restructuring. ANA announced an order for three A380 aircraft in late 2015, which even ANA admitted was not consistent with its overall fleet plan, leading to speculation that ANA had agreed to accept Skymark's A380 orders in exchange for Airbus's support.

After exiting bankruptcy in 2016, Skymark's finances improved more quickly than expected; the company recorded 6.7 billion yen in operating profit in the March 2016 – 2017 fiscal year. Skymark focused its network expansion on its hubs in Kobe and Ibaraki, and announced plans for 150 daily flights in summer 2018, up from 138 in summer 2017. Skymark announced in June 2018 that it intended to offer international charter flights from Narita to Saipan and Palau, its first international services, with the flights to Saipan subsequently becoming scheduled flights in late 2019.

Since 2020, due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the Saipan route was cancelled and was never restored; in late 2022, the CEO of Skymark publicly stated that the airline has no plans to resume scheduled international service before 2026. In August 2020, the airline announced Shimojishima Airport as a new destination, with flights beginning in October 2020. In 2021, the first year after effect of COVID 19, Skymarks records ¥27 billion operating losses, become the company's worst losses since it exiting from bankruptcy. The airline reported ¥17 billion operating losses once again in 2022.

Skymark planned to introduce a frequent flyer program in January 2014 to coincide with the launch of its premium domestic service, though the induction of the program was delayed in December 2013 in order to focus on preparing for international service, before being postponed indefinitely. While the airline does not retain its own frequent flyer program, Skymark has provided award seats to members of the Delta Air Lines SkyMiles program since June 2011, although the two airlines do not codeshare, nor can Skymark flights be used to accrue under Delta's SkyMiles program.