Skynet starts ¥10,000 ticket offer for foreign tourists

The Japan Times: Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009
(C) All rights reserved

By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer

Skynet Asia Airways Co. kicked off a campaign Tuesday offering ¥10,000 one-way domestic flight tickets for foreigners with temporary visa status.

The discount of as much as one-third off regular fares applies to all eight routes of Miyazaki-based Skynet Asia, including those from Tokyo's Haneda airport. Eligible customers are foreigners aged 3 and above who have entered Japan under a 90-day temporary visitor visa.

"We wanted to set a price for foreign visitors to convince them to fly," said Yo Hasegawa, Skynet Asia's spokesman, adding the carrier hopes to cash in on the government's Visit Japan campaign, which aims to increase the number of foreign visitors to 10 million next year and to 20 million by 2016.

The eight routes are Haneda-Miyazaki, Haneda-Kumamoto, Miyazaki-Okinawa, Kumamoto-Okinawa, Nagasaki-Haneda, Kagoshima-Haneda, Okinawa-Nagasaki, and Okinawa-Kagoshima.

The company said it had yet to determine how many takers the discount attracted on the kickoff day.

Skynet is not accepting reservations, and the ¥10,000 tickets are valid for 90 days. Passengers can fly on any day during the 90-day period if seats are available.

The tickets can be purchased at Skynet Asia's ticket counters or at travel agents that deal with the service.

On average, Skynet Asia's one-way Haneda-Kagoshima ticket costs ¥31,500 for adults.

The company, which carries about 1 million passengers annually, aims to boost the number of its foreign customers to around 5,000 a year with the help of the Visit Japan campaign, Hasegawa said.