Japan Airlines’ creditors have agreed a $10billion restructuring plan for the bankrupt airline, a partner of British Airways in the oneworld alliance.
Creditors have agreed to waive 88 percent of unsecured liabilities while the airline has agreed to cut 16,000 jobs, axe 49 unprofitable routes and shrink its fleet in a bid to come out of bankruptcy by 2012.
At the same time, it has been revealed that none of the airline’s former managers are likely to face legal action even though an investigation found there were problems in managerial judgement and corporate governance.
The Compliance Investigation Committee said the organisation was ‘bloated’, suffered from ‘a weak corporate culture and weak corporate finances’ and said the problems included ‘a wide gulf of awareness between corporate planning divisions and on-location staff’.
It said there was a lack of responsible initiatives and managerial judgement by top management and a company-wide lack of risk awareness, but it came to the conclusion that it would be difficult to find former managers legally liable under criminal or civil laws.
By Linsey McNeill
