Budget airline Jetstar Japan, part-owned by Australia’s Qantas, said Wednesday it will launch domestic flights serving five major destinations as Japan’s aviation industry enters a period of change.The new service, slated to begin July 3, is the latest chapter in a bid to open up a market that has traditionally suffered from high prices because of dominance by two major carriers, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways.The launch network of Tokyo (Narita), Osaka, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Okinawa will be serviced by an initial fleet of three new A320 aircraft,said Jetstar, a joint venture between Qantas, Japan Airlines (JAL) and Mitsubishi Corp.

Fares and schedules will be announced soon, it said.Japan’s major airlines were behind global rivals in terms of entry into the low-cost sector, but ANA last year set up budget airline Peach Aviation with a Hong Kong investment fund. Flights are scheduled to start in March.ANA has also tied up with Malaysia’s AirAsia to launch AirAsia Japan in August.Peach will operate out of Osaka and Air Asia Japan will be based in Tokyo.Separately, Skymark Airlines has been operating low-cost domestic flights in Japan since 1998.
Jetstar Japan said it plans to offer short-haul international services to key Asian cities starting in 2013.Melbourne-based Jetstar operates routes throughout the Asia-Pacific region, including between Australia and Japan.

Serving the Japanese customer for the past five years with international services gives us a clear advantage in rolling out a domestic network,” said Jetstar Group Chief Executive Bruce Buchanan.Since the start of this year, the Jetstar Group has announced 36 additional weekly international flights to-and-from Japan.Jetstar Japan CEO Miyuki Suzuki said: In a country that?s never had a true low fares domestic network, the ability to travel for an average of 50 percent less will open up new places and opportunities.