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JAL files for bankruptcy protection, to be delisted in Feb.

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A JAL jet taxies past another jal plane at haneda airport in tokyo, japan, tuesday, Jan.19, 2010. [CFP]

According to sources briefed on JAL's financial situation, the financial estimate of the restructuring charges combined with the foreseen operating losses amount to a 265 billion yen loss for the year to March 30, compared with a 51 billion yen marked in the previous year.

The state-led rehabilitation plan is largely expected to slash the number of JAL's subsidiaries by around 50 percent and around 15,700 jobs, roughly 30 percent of its group workforce, will be cut by the business year through March 2013, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

Additionally the firm will dispense with 53 aged, fuel- inefficient 747 liners, in favor of 33 more cost-effective smaller jets and a number of superfluous and domestic and international routes are to be discontinued, in light of falling patronage and rising fuel costs.

JAL President, Haruka Nishimatsu, is to retire his post to the founder of Kyocera Corporation, Kazuo Inamori, well-renown for his entrepreneurial spirit and previous record of turning around stricken organizations. An official announcement on the matter will be made pending confirmation by the turnaround body, sources close to the matter said.

JAL was once seen as a national symbol of Japan's postwar boom, as it transformed a handful of leased planes in 1951 into a nearly 50,000 staff mega-carrier, with a fleet of almost 280 aircraft, but since 2001 the carrier has struck three previous rescue deals with its banks and the government.

The carrier has been hit with irreconcilable issues of safety, including a fatal crash in 1995, as well as failings stemming from government bureaucracy and a flawed corporate structure that allowed for overly-generous pensions and benefits for its employees.

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