Domestic bliss: as it completes the integration of Japan Air System, Japan Airlines looks...

If Japan Airlines System Corp. Chairman and President Isao Kaneko needed any further affirmation of his November 2001 decision to acquire Japan Air System, last year's SARS outbreak certainly provided it. At the peak of the crisis last May, JAL's international passenger numbers fell 52% compared to the year-ago period, while traffic on routes to China was off by close to 80%. Last November, JAL estimated that SARS reduced operating income by [yen] 115.5 billion ($1.04 billion), and in March it raised its loss estimate for the just-ended fiscal year from a colossal [yen] 65 billion