Japan Airlines

Founding

Japan Airlines Co. was established on 1 August 1951, with the government of Japan recognising the need for a reliable air transportation system to help Japan recover in the aftermath of World War II. The airline was founded with an initial capital of ¥100 million; its headquarters were located in Ginza, Chūō, Tokyo. Between 27 and 29 of August, the airline operated invitational flights on a Douglas DC-3 Kinsei, leased from Philippine Airlines. On 25 October, Japan's first post-war domestic airline service was inaugurated, using a Martin 2-0-2 aircraft, named Mokusei, and crew leased from Northwest Orient Airlines subsidiary TALOA.

On 1 August 1953, the National Diet passed the Japan Airlines Company Act (日本航空株式会社法, Nihon Kōkū Kabushiki-gaisha Hō) forming a new state-owned Japan Airlines on 1 October, which assumed all assets and liabilities of its private predecessor. By 1953, the JAL network extended northward from Tokyo to Sapporo and Misawa, and westward to Nagoya, Osaka, Iwakuni, and Fukuoka.

On 2 February 1954, the airline began international flights, carrying 18 passengers from Tokyo to San Francisco on a Douglas DC-6B City of Tokyo via Wake Island and Honolulu. The flights between Tokyo and San Francisco are still Flights 1 and 2, to commemorate its first international service. The early flights were advertised as being operated by American crews and serviced by United Airlines in San Francisco.

The airline, in addition to the Douglas DC-3, Douglas DC-6B, and Martin 2-0-2s, operated Douglas DC-4s and Douglas DC-7Cs during the 1950s. JAL flew to Hong Kong via Okinawa by 1955, having pared down its domestic network to Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Sapporo. By 1958, the Hong Kong route had been extended to Bangkok and Singapore. With DC-7Cs, JAL was able to fly nonstop between Seattle and Tokyo in 1959.

Jet era

In 1960, the airline took delivery of its first jet, a Douglas DC-8 named Fuji, introducing jet service on the Tokyo-Honolulu-San Francisco route. JAL went on to operate a fleet of 51 DC-8s, retiring the last of the type in 1987. Fuji flew until 1974 and was then used as a maintenance training platform until 1989; its nose section was stored at Haneda Airport and eventually put on public display at the JAL Sky Museum in March 2014.

JAL also began flying to Seattle and Hong Kong in 1960. At the end of 1961, JAL had transpolar flights from Tokyo to Seattle, Copenhagen, London, and Paris via Anchorage, Alaska, and to Los Angeles and San Francisco via Honolulu, Hawaii.

During the 1960s, JAL flew to many new cities, including Moscow, New York, and Busan. DC-8 flights to Europe via Anchorage started in 1961; flights to Europe via India started in 1962, initially with Convair 880s. Under government pressure, Boeing 727s were acquired for domestic services in 1965 to allow the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau to issue an import license for All Nippon Airways' (ANA) own fleet of 727s.

By 1965, Japan Airlines was headquartered in the Tokyo Building in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Around this time, over half of JAL's revenue was generated on transpacific routes to the United States, and the airline was lobbying the United States for fifth freedom rights to fly transatlantic routes from the East Coast. The transpacific route was extended east from San Francisco to New York in November 1966 and to London in 1967; flights between San Francisco and London ended in December 1972.

Between 1967 and 1969, JAL had an agreement with Aeroflot to operate a joint service between Tokyo and Moscow using a Soviet Tupolev Tu-114. The flight crew included one JAL member, and the cabin crew had five members each from Aeroflot and JAL. The weekly flight started in April 1967.

In 1972, under the 45/47 system (45/47体制, yongo-yonnana taisei), the so-called "aviation constitution" enacted by the Japanese government, JAL was granted flag carrier status to operate international routes. The airline was also designated to operate domestic trunk routes in competition with ANA and Toa Domestic Airlines.

The signing of a civil air transport agreement between China and Japan on 20 April 1974 caused the suspension of air routes between Taiwan and Japan on 21 April. A new subsidiary, Japan Asia Airways, was established on 8 August 1975, and air services between the two countries were restored on 15 September. During the 1970s, the airline bought the Boeing 747 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10 for its growing routes within Japan and to other countries.

In the 1980s the airline performed special flights for the Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko of Japan, Pope John Paul II, and Japanese prime ministers. Until the introduction of dedicated government aircraft two Boeing 747-400s operated as Japanese Air Force One and Japanese Air Force Two. During that decade, the airline introduced new Boeing 747-100SR, Boeing 747-SUD, and Boeing 767 jets to the fleet and retired the Boeing 727s and Douglas DC-8s.

In 1978, JAL started flights to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro via Anchorage and San Juan; The stopover was changed to Los Angeles in 1982 and to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1999.