JAPAN AIR CUTS CHINA FLIGHTS AMID ISLANDS SPAT; SHARES FALL

Japan Airlines Co. (9201) cut flights to China as a dispute over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea spurs travel boycotts and street protests. The carrier’s shares, which relisted on the stock market this week, tumbled.

The airline will reduce services to Beijing and Shanghai starting Oct. 10 until Oct. 27, it said by e-mail today. A total of 12,000 seat reservations from September to November have been canceled, said Sze Hunn Yap, a spokeswoman at JAL. All Nippon Airways Co. has no immediate plans to cut flights, Ryosei Nomura, a spokesman, said by phone.

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Japan Air fell as much as 4.8 percent in Tokyo trading, dropping below its initial public offering price for the first time since returning to the stock exchange two days ago after an $8.4 billion initial public offering. China Southern Airlines Co. and other Chinese carriers have also pared services to Japan amid a boycott that prompted the cancellation of as much as 40 percent of planned trips to Japan last week by Chinese holidaymakers, according to Citigroup Inc.

21/09/2012  :  Kiyotaka Matsuda and Chris Cooper / Bloomberg.

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