Air Transport

Japan Airlines (JAL) has proposed cutting its retirees' pensions by 30% to reduce the struggling carrier's debt.

It also proposes reducing current employees' pensions by 50%, says a spokeswoman for the Oneworld carrier, which has 9,000 retirees and 17,000 employees.

JAL's president Haruka Nishimatsu met 1,500 former employees yesterday to make the proposal. There will be another meeting on 26 November, says the spokeswoman.

To put the plans into effect JAL needs two-thirds of its retirees and employees to agree with the proposals, she adds. The airline hopes to reach an agreement by the end of January.

The airline posted a fiscal second quarter net loss of ¥32.1 billion ($356 million) and has applied to the government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation of Japan (ETIC) for a bail-out.