Japan Airlines has put forward a five-year plan for recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.
The carrier does not expect profits to return to pre-pandemic levels of 170 billion yen until the 2023 financial year.
The medium-term management plan calls for profits to rebuild to 185 billion yen in 2025.
It came as the carrier reported a loss of almost 400 billion yen in the year to March due to the impact of the pandemic.
The airline said: “As the pandemic spread across the globe, the JAL Group strived to maintain its domestic and international route network, while strengthening hygiene and contactless measures to ensure a safe and secure travel experience.
“Faced with a rapid and significant decrease in revenue, the carrier implemented fundamental cost reduction measures and, including investments, to mitigate the negative impact of the financial situation.”
The carrier added: “The business environment surrounding JAL has changed significantly due to the new coronavirus.
“Under this medium-term management plan, we will adapt to changes in the environment and achieve sustainable growth and development.”
The strategy involves capturing inbound demand from China together with Chinese budget carrier Spring Airlines Group, creating a Japan subsidiary.
“We will promote business structure reform in order to build a sustainable business structure that can flexibly respond to market changes and withstand future risks,” JAL said.
“We will improve and enhance the profitability of the full-service carrier business by optimising our equipment and network and strengthening our competitiveness, and at the same time, we will work to expand stable earnings in the cargo mail business.
“In the LCC market, where demand is expected to grow steadily in the future, we will strengthen our cooperation with Zipair, Spring Japan and Jetstar Japan to expand our network and increase our revenue.
“In addition, we will utilise the JAL Group’s strengths in customer base, operational know-how, technological expertise and other human skills to expand our business in areas such as mileage, regional revitalisation, commissioned business and next-generation air mobility.”