Japan Airlines (JAL, JL) (日本航空株式会社) is Japan’s flag carrier and largest airline as of 2022 - it operates 146 aircraft across 92 destinations; of which 43 are Boeing 737-800s. There are two sub-fleets of the Boeing 737-800 at JAL; 7 of which are configured with the international 144-seat layout (JA304J, JA305J, JA312J, JA315J, JA317J, JA320J, JA321J) and the rest in the domestic 165-seat configuration.
All of the airline’s domestic 737-800s have been inherited from one of its former subsidiaries, JAL Express, which ceased operations in 2014 and was absorbed into its parent company. JA330J (the JAL Express 737-800 currently in IF) is no different - a repaint would definitely make sense when the actual aircraft has been transferred to its current operator nearly 9 years ago.
The B737-800 is JAL’s domestic workhorse that serves smaller airports across the country from the likes of Tokyo and Osaka in addition to supplementing widebodies on high-demand trunk routes between major cities.
JA330J taxiing for departure at Sapporo New Chitose (RJCC/CTS.) Source
JA340J preparing to depart Chitose as JL520.
It will be 10 years since JAL Express has closed down this year and the aircraft transferred to JAL - I don’t believe the change will be extremely difficult to make as it involves changing the text to “JAPAN AIRLINES” only.
(Yes, I’m aware the topic is for JA330J, but only because it’s the current registration in IF. It’s my picture as well.)
Absolutely, thanks for the support! I’d say the same for the ANA A321… where the old livery never existed on the A321-200 we have in IF (it was on the 100, the 200 has the new livery with sharklets.)
Enough about ANA though, I don’t think changing from JAL Express to Japan Airlines is a particularly difficult task compared to many other liveries as all they have to do is literally change the large text on the fuselage. The registration and tail number, everything else is the same.
