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JAL, Skymark heads testify at Diet over flight troubles+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, April 11_(Kyodo) _ Skymark Airlines Co. President Shinichi Nishikubo said Tuesday the discount airline had placed importance on securing profitability, while outgoing Japan Airlines Corp. President Toshiyuki Shimmachi again apologized over JAL's flight troubles.
Nishikubo and Shimmachi testified as unsworn witnesses at a session of the House of Representatives' Committee on Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which held intensive discussions on a recent spate of flight problems involving JAL and Skymark.
Asked about his basic stance as president of an airline, Nishikubo said, "Safety is of course required, but at the same time healthy profit performance must be secured."
Shimmachi offered a "deep apology to the Japanese people for causing trouble." He also said he was sorry that an internal feud between Shimmachi and four executive officials of JAL group firms, which he described as "an exchange of views over management," had been widely reported.
Nishikubo said he was ashamed of the troubles, and that Skymark's organization was not perfect.
JAL president-designate Haruka Nishimatsu, who will take over Shimmachi's post in June, and the two JAL directors in charge of maintenance were also summoned to testify at the panel as unsworn witnesses. Transport minister Kazuo Kitagawa was also present.
Kitagawa said he wants Skymark to "fully take note of the role, importance and mission as a public transportation service provider," in commenting on Skymark's plan to end flight service on routes linking Tokyo's Haneda airport with Kagoshima and Tokushima airports.
Nishimatsu said that JAL cannot restore travelers' trust and improve its business unless it can ensure safety.
Skymark has been undergoing a special inspection by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry since March after the company was found to have been flying an aircraft past a nine-month repair deadline.
JAL was reprimanded in March by the ministry for flying a passenger aircraft for 10 days without conducting required inspections. JAL was found that it later conducted a lax inspection on the plane.
JAL's troubles also include one involving a cargo aircraft using the wrong main-wheel parts for more than eight years and another in which a passenger plane flew to New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido from Tokyo's Haneda airport while flight attendants forgot to make emergency slides operable.
In February, four JAL group directors urged Shimmachi to resign to take the blame for safety and financial problems at the airline. The following month, he offered to resign in June.
Skymark Airlines offers flights on routes linking Tokyo's Haneda airport with Sapporo, Kobe and Fukuoka, besides flights to Tokushima and Kagoshima.
JAL has overtaken All Nippon Airways as the No. 1 carrier on domestic routes since merging with Japan Air System in April 2004.
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