COURT APPROVES JAL RESTRUCTURING PLAN

The restructuring plans submitted by Japan Airlines have been approved 10 months after the airline filed for bankruptcy protection. Now JAL is free to implement the plan, its workforce will be cut by about 16,000 to 32,600 by March 31. Some 49 unprofitable international and domestic routes and flights will be scrapped by the end of March 2013. “We are grateful to be given the opportunity to rehabilitate,” said JAL President Masaru Onishi. The airline is requesting a debt waiver of 521.5 billion yen ($6.3 billion) from its lenders. Enterprise Turnaround Initiative, a government backed company, has pledged to inject