I flew on Japan Airlines’ Boeing 767!
This domestic flight on Japan’s flag carrier took me from the capital, Tokyo, to Hiroshima,
in the western part of the country.
Just as a quick recap, I spent a week in Japan back in May with some good friends of mine,
after flying there on WestJet’s inaugural flight from Calgary.
However, that was certainly not the only interesting
flight we took on that trip, and our quite
busy week here started with some time in Tokyo first.
After arriving and spending the night at Narita Airport, we made our way into the city to
explore for ourselves.
Tokyo is the largest city in Japan, and is home to around 37 million people in the Greater
Tokyo Area.
That is basically the entire population of Canada all in one place, which is just insane
to think about!
The biggest culture shock for us Canadians though might’ve been the existence of a
reliable transit system.
Jokes aside, there’s so much to like about Tokyo and just Japan in general.
It’s so organized and efficient and everyone we talked to was very welcoming.
Needless to say, we had a great first full day here, seeing the whole city from the Tokyo
SkyTree, and then taking in the sights at Shibuya Crossing, the busiest pedestrian crossing
in the world.
We did come back to Tokyo later in the week, but in the meantime, we wanted to go see as
much of this amazing country as we could.
Tokyo is served by two different commercial airports - Narita, about 60 kilometres from
Central Tokyo, handles international, cargo, and low-cost flights.
Haneda Airport however, more centrally located in Tokyo Bay, handles mainly domestic flights,
and some international traffic too.
As a result, Haneda is also the busiest airport in all of Japan, and this is where we spent
most of the next day.
The airport has three different terminals - Terminals 1, 2, and 3.
Terminal 3 on the west side is used for international
flights only, while Terminal 2 is used primarily
by ANA.
Terminal 1 meanwhile, is mainly used by Japan Airlines, or JAL, for all of their domestic
flights.
Those two carriers are the two biggest airlines in Japan, and I haven’t had the chance to
try either of them before.
We chose Japan Airlines for today’s flight mainly because they happened to be flying
a 767 on this route, and well, we don’t have any more of those flying passengers at
home.
We did get to try out ANA on some later flights though.
As the largest airline in Terminal 1, JAL has a big presence pre-security, and in this
part, they had this very automated check-in area!
There are a bunch of these self-serve kiosks surrounding a desk where there’s one person
to help out.
Fortunately, I figured things out once I found the “English” button, and got my boarding
pass for this evening’s flight.
Before that though, there is one other perk of Japanese airports that Canadian airports
could only dream of.
Terminal 1 at Haneda has lots and lots of shopping and food options before security
in this beautiful central hall, and at the very top of that hall, is an open air observation
deck.
This stretches across part of the roof of Terminal 1, with an unbelievable view through
some wires.
This looks out towards the west, across runway 16R/34L, and with a view of Terminal 3 in
the background.
Earlier in the day, you could even see Mount Fuji as well!
There’s even a second level too!
It’s just so cool to see how normal watching airplanes is here, and terminals 2 and 3 both
have equally fantastic observation decks of their own.
We spent most of this day plane spotting from the various terminals and getting our fill
of Japanese airlines since we wouldn’t have a ton of time for that later on.
Now Japanese domestic flights themselves are also pretty interesting, at least from my
perspective.
Because of the sheer population density, a significant number of these short 1-2 hour
flights are operated with widebody aircraft.
On some especially busy city pairs like Tokyo to Osaka, at some times of day, you’ll even
see widebody flights every 30 minutes.
So, from an aviation geek’s point of view, it’s a great way to fly on a widebody aircraft
for a reasonable price, and to try out some new airlines in the process.
With lots of photos and videos over the course of the day, we headed back down to make our
way through security for this evening’s flight.
Even security here was remarkably efficient.
No taking out laptops, liquids, or cameras like I usually have to do back at home.
Today’s gate was just a short walk from there, at gate number 10.
Post security, this part of Terminal 1 didn’t seem to have too much to it, but I suppose
for domestic flights, you would ideally not spend a lot of time here anyway.
However, our flight was delayed about half an hour due to the gate still being occupied
by the previous flight.
As soon as the gate was clear, our 767 for this evening taxiied in, this relatively new
2009-built 767-300ER, registered as Juliet Alpha 622 Juliet.
This plane was delivered to Japan Airlines in May of 2009, making it only 14 years old
and one of the last few dozen or so passenger 767s built.
Both Japan Airlines and ANA took delivery of a handful of new 767s around that time,
which I find very interesting, since they were both early adopters of the 787.
It kind of shows just how dependable the 767 design is to have been delivering new passenger
ones for 30 years straight.
Even today, JAL still has 27 767s in their fleet, some of which still fly internationally
across the Pacific.
Although we did pick this flight just for the plane like I said, I get the feeling they’re
not going anywhere in Japan anytime soon.
The gate area soon filled up as our boarding time approached.
I do have to say, I really like how much detail they go into on the screens above the gate,
right down to the aircraft type, cabin, and the boarding process too.
We booked seats in “Class J” on this flight, which seems to be JAL’s equivalent of domestic
Premium Economy.
Although it gives you a wider seat at the front of the plane, it doesn’t include priority
boarding, so we still had to wait a bit.
Eventually, all boarding zones were called, so let’s go see what a Japanese domestic
flight is like!
JAL’s 767s have a couple different configurations, and this one had 5 First Class Seats in a
2-1-2 layout.
The next seven rows are all Class J, with 42 recliner style seats in a 2-2-2 configuration.
My seat this evening is 10A, a window seat, unfortunately where there is a missing one.
You can already tell just how comfortable these seats are though!
There’s more than enough legroom here, and you can still get this great engine view from
the other window.
This being one of the newest passenger 767s
on the planet, the interior looks very Dreamliner-like,
with colourful mood lighting, big overhead bins, but unfortunately no individual air
vents.
Since we were the last group to board, the doors were closed very shortly afterwards
as the cabin crew welcomed us on board first in Japanese, and then in English.
We soon pushed back and the engines were started as JAL’s safety video played on the overhead
monitors and on the big screens at the front of the cabin.
Talk about effective gate utilization too - even before we stopped pushing back, another
plane was towed into our gate immediately!
With this wonderful send-off from our ground crew, which is actually typical of every flight
in Japan, we were on our way!
Here’s the departure from Haneda, off of runway 16L.
What a view of Tokyo that was!
Some departures from Haneda follow that sort of circular routing around Tokyo Bay for noise
abatement and airspace restrictions, giving those of us on the left side quite the sight.
After that, effectively, 270 degree turn, our routing today took us westbound along
Honshu, the main island of Japan, with a flight time of just over an hour.
It also took us right past Mount Fuji, which we got a spectacular view of as it appeared
from behind some clouds at the last minute.
It was such a treat to see this iconic symbol of Japan from the air with just enough light
left in the day.
As we continued to climb, the cabin crew drew the curtains and started the inflight service
by bowing to the cabin.
A selection of complimentary drinks were soon given out to Class J. I went for one of JAL’s
signature drinks - a peach and grape mix, which came in this nicely branded cup.
It was very tasty, although that was the extent of the service.
Given it is a domestic flight and that this ticket only cost about 200 Canadian dollars,
it does make sense.
In that way, it seems the major selling point of Class J is the bigger seat, which had controls
on the armrest for reclining or raising the footrest, and the tray table that folds out
across your lap.
On the other armrest is a large platform for drinks, and below that, on the inside of the
seat, you can find a headphone jack, reading light button, and volume and channel controls,
as well as the call button.
Each seat also had a very comfortable headrest that was adjustable too.
There’s this roomy seatback pocket in front as well, which had quite a lot inside, starting
with this very nicely designed “disposal” bag,
an in-flight shopping pamphlet,
instructions for connecting to the in-flight wifi,
JAL’s inflight magazine, which had a very detailed
fleet page, plus something I have to try at some point,
and finally, this smartly designed safety card for the 767.
Meanwhile, the back of the plane has 205 Economy Class seats in the typical 2-3-2 layout, for
a total of 252 seats on this 767.
There is another domestic 767 configuration that doesn’t have the 5 First Class seats
up front, which is what the seat map was originally
showing on this flight.
Also in the back is one lavatory near the overwing exits, plus two in the aft galley.
This overwing one was surprisingly roomy and spotless too!
There was also free wifi on board,
which had in-flight entertainment built-in, with lots to choose from.
There was even free internet access although it was kind of slow to use.
From then on, I tried to stay awake as the jetlag started to hit me.
The cabin lights dimmed to a nice blue as we began our descent, and here’s the arrival
into Hiroshima Airport, landing on runway 28.
So that was a domestic flight on Japan Airlines!
Overall, this was a very enjoyable flight, with a comfortable seat, welcoming crew, and
some beautiful scenery outside.
Haneda Airport was super easy to travel through, despite it being one of the busiest in the
world, and of course, those observation decks were amazing.
On board, Class J was pretty decent too.
The thing is, although it sounds like a domestic Business Class type of product, it’s really
more like Premium Economy with a bigger seat instead.
For us though, it was still worth the extra price, especially to fly on a 767 again, and
with such a great view like that.
It was also interesting to take a domestic flight in this part of the world finally,
and to see just how Japanese efficiency comes through in their aviation sector.
Let’s just say, things could be done a lot better back at home.
Regardless, I had a great time travelling with Japan Airlines,
and I’m glad I got another chance to fly on a 767.
Thanks so much for watching this trip report on JAL’s Boeing 767,
and I’ll see you next time.