LONDON – The Japanese subsidiary of Jetstar, Jetstar Japan, has announced it will restart daily direct flights between Manila and Tokyo in December.

This will be the first time in three years since the carrier has operated this specific service, with the airline ready and waiting to welcome passengers onboard for these services.

Such a route is also the first international destination that the carrier will operate following the “two-way quarantine-free travel for fully vaccinated travelers.”

It is understood also that GK40 will be the flight in question for operations, with travelers also able to use 3K765 of Jetstar Asia from Singapore to Narita via Manila too.

Jetstar also confirmed that they would be using their Airbus A320 aircraft, which will be able to seat up to 180 passengers on each flight.

Executive Comments…

Jetstar Asia CEO Bara Pasupathi commented on this announcement, stating that Japan’s choice in changing COVID-19 requirements will boost consumer confidence:

“Travellers from the Philippines and Singapore will be pleased to learn that pre-departure COVID-19 testing for vaccinated travelers to Japan will be waived, and we expect this will have a positive impact on demand for air travel,”

“There is a lot of pent-up demand for services in and out of Japan, and we know customers are eager to snap up low fares to this popular destination.”

“In one single booking, Singapore travelers will be able to book and connect to Narita (Tokyo) through the Jetstar Group of airlines.”

Francis Loi, the General Manager of Jetstar’s Group Sales Agency, HTT Travel, also commented on this major news for the company:

“As a strategic sales partner for the Jetstar Group since 2005, HT&T Travel Philippines is excited with the resumption of Manila-Narita (Tokyo) services.”

“Pre-pandemic, this route was the most popular among Filipino groups travelers with many traveling beyond on domestic Japan routes.”

Japan Opening Up…

Jetstar Japan becomes the second airline in the Jetstar Group to resume operations in Japan. This comes following the mainline Jetstar relaunching services from Cairns and the Gold Coast earlier this year.

The only level of restriction for Filipino and Singaporean residents to travel into Japan is a negative COVID-19 PCR result 72 hours before your departure time.

Bear in mind also this is only for passengers who are vaccinated with no booster or are completely unvaccinated.

Either way, this is going to be good news for Asian air travel, especially with things beginning to return to some form of normalcy in certain countries across the region.

Overall…

Looking ahead, it’s going to be interesting to see how much success these relaunched routes will have, especially with how long it will take for consumer confidence to restore.

Ahead of a global recession, this could prove to be a little tougher, so fares may have to come down to encourage such traveling opportunities.

Either way, it’s going to be an interesting area to watch, and we will no doubt see an indicator of success or failure going into the short term.