ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines Inc. is considering making a cash infusion of several hundred million dollars to aid struggling Japan Airlines Corp., a person briefed on the talks said Friday.
In exchange for the infusion, the person said the world’s biggest airline operator could get a stake in Japan Airlines, an expanded presence in Japan and coveted access to the closest airport to the Tokyo business center.
The talks between the two carriers were in their preliminary stage, and it was unclear what form a partnership between Delta and Japan Airlines might take, said the person, who asked not to be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
“There’s definite interest on both sides,” the person said.
A Delta spokesman declined to comment. JAL spokesman Satoru Tanaka said the airline was considering various tie-ups with a variety of potential partners but nothing had been decided.
Japan Airlines already has a codeshare agreement with American Airlines as part of its participation in the oneworld alliance. Delta’s SkyTeam alliance currently doesn’t have a Japanese partner.
An American spokesman declined to speculate on how a Delta-Japan Airlines deal might impact American’s relationship with Japan Airlines.
“We would not routinely comment on the media rumors and speculation involving one of our oneworld partners,” American spokesman Tim Smith said. “We obviously would note that JAL has been a very good partner for both American and oneworld.”
Among U.S. carriers, Atlanta-based Delta has a relatively large Japan presence by virtue of its acquisition last year of Northwest Airlines, but its market share there is still dwarfed by that of Japanese carriers.
In the Tokyo market, Delta operates from Narita Airport, the main international airport.
Delta has not been allowed to serve Haneda Airport, a mostly domestic airport that is much closer to the center of Tokyo.
The U.S. and Japanese governments have been in talks about air service between the countries, though it is unclear how those talks will turn out.
A key benefit for Japan Airlines, Asia’s biggest airline group, to a deal with Delta would be money.
Hit by plummeting demand in a slumping global economy and swine flu fears, JAL incurred its biggest-ever quarterly net loss of 99 billion yen ($1 billion) in the three months ending in June.
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