
JCAS Airways is now aiming for a spring 2026 launch, The San-in Chuo Shimpo reported at the end of August 2024. Initially, the airline plans to launch flights from Osaka Kansai to Toyama and Yonago in the Hokuriku region.
The airline, which was originally planning to launch scheduled flights 2021 and most recently targeting April 2025, is finalizing a lease agreement for an ATR72 with Singapore’s Avation, which was first announced at the Farnborough International Airshow this July. Within five years, the company plans to grow its fleet to seven aircraft and operate 16 different routes according to the report.
Separately from the initial flights out of Osaka, the airline is also planning to launch flights from Hagi-Iwami Airport among others.
In preparation for its launch, JCAS will go through T-Startup, a Toyama-based startup accelerator program, between September 2024 and February 2025. It plans to submit its license application to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism this year with the aim for it to be granted next year. It then plans to secure offices within the airports it will operate to no later than six months before launch.
If JCAS succeeds with its launch as now planned, it will be the only airline to offer flights between Osaka and the two Hokuriku airports.
The most recent airline to successfully launch operations in Japan is Toki Air, which became the first independent airline to have done so since Fuji Dream Airlines’ 2009 launch. Toki Air operated its inaugural flight on January 31, 2024.