IrishAyes wrote:

727LOVER wrote:

Refresh my memory. Where does JAL currently serve in North America?

SFO
LAX
DFW
ORD
BOS
JFK
HNL
SAN
YVR

HNL is not in North America

Wouldn't it be a bit overkill for JL to launch SEA? That'd be 3 airlines operating SEA-NRT, which seems way too saturated. Would JL consider SEA-HND?

clrd4t8koff wrote:

Wouldn't it be a bit overkill for JL to launch SEA? That'd be 3 airlines operating SEA-NRT, which seems way too saturated. Would JL consider SEA-HND?

There used to be three airlines to NRT...DL, NH and UA. But we know long that lasted. Right now, the SEA-ICN has KE, DL and Asiana. DL's SEA-HND was a disaster.

With the AS connectivity, I think JL could do SEA-NRT with a 787-8.

wedgetail737 wrote:

There used to be three airlines to NRT...DL, NH and UA. But we know long that lasted. Right now, the SEA-ICN has KE, DL and Asiana. DL's SEA-HND was a disaster.

With the AS connectivity, I think JL could do SEA-NRT with a 787-8.

And for years before that, there were a different three airlines - AA, Northwest and United. Personally, I agree that a JAL 787 could work on SEA-NRT with connecting feed at both ends. I'm not saying we'll necessarily see it happen anytime soon, but I think it's quite plausible.

commavia wrote:

wedgetail737 wrote:

There used to be three airlines to NRT...DL, NH and UA. But we know long that lasted. Right now, the SEA-ICN has KE, DL and Asiana. DL's SEA-HND was a disaster.

With the AS connectivity, I think JL could do SEA-NRT with a 787-8.

And for years before that, there were a different three airlines - AA, Northwest and United. Personally, I agree that a JAL 787 could work on SEA-NRT with connecting feed at both ends. I'm not saying we'll necessarily see it happen anytime soon, but I think it's quite plausible.

And the SEA market has arguably never been stronger. I agree @commavia.

QueenoftheSkies wrote:

IrishAyes wrote:

727LOVER wrote:

Refresh my memory. Where does JAL currently serve in North America?

SFO
LAX
DFW
ORD
BOS
JFK
HNL
SAN
YVR

HNL is not in North America

Geographically, no. But politically, and frankly for almost all intents and purposes, Hawaii is part of North America.

clrd4t8koff wrote:

Wouldn't it be a bit overkill for JL to launch SEA? That'd be 3 airlines operating SEA-NRT, which seems way too saturated. Would JL consider SEA-HND?

I was thinking that too. SEA would have too much competition, where as there are many other options that would work great. I still think LAS is a major contender.

airzona11 wrote:

And the SEA market has arguably never been stronger. I agree @commavia.

If the SEA-NRT market has never been stronger, why haven't UA or AA returned? Why has DL gone from a 747 -> 777 -> 767 on the route? Why does NH only operate a 789 as opposed to a 77W? Perhaps there's data out there that says otherwise, but it doesn't appear to me that SEA is that strong to TYO. Two carriers on it is probably more than enough.

clrd4t8koff wrote:

airzona11 wrote:

And the SEA market has arguably never been stronger. I agree @commavia.

If the SEA-NRT market has never been stronger, why haven't UA or AA returned? Why has DL gone from a 747 -> 777 -> 767 on the route? Why does NH only operate a 789 as opposed to a 77W? Perhaps there's data out there that says otherwise, but it doesn't appear to me that SEA is that strong to TYO. Two carriers on it is probably more than enough.

He didn't say the SEA-NRT market has never been stronger, but rather the SEA market as a whole.

jbs2886 wrote:

clrd4t8koff wrote:

airzona11 wrote:

And the SEA market has arguably never been stronger. I agree @commavia.

If the SEA-NRT market has never been stronger, why haven't UA or AA returned? Why has DL gone from a 747 -> 777 -> 767 on the route? Why does NH only operate a 789 as opposed to a 77W? Perhaps there's data out there that says otherwise, but it doesn't appear to me that SEA is that strong to TYO. Two carriers on it is probably more than enough.

He didn't say the SEA-NRT market has never been stronger, but rather the SEA market as a whole.

UA and NH have a JV, so UA is in the SEA-NRT market. Oneworld is the only alliance without a presence in the market, which is why there's been much speculation that a 788 SEA-NRT is a possibility on JL/AA.

jbs2886 wrote:

clrd4t8koff wrote:

airzona11 wrote:

And the SEA market has arguably never been stronger. I agree @commavia.

If the SEA-NRT market has never been stronger, why haven't UA or AA returned? Why has DL gone from a 747 -> 777 -> 767 on the route? Why does NH only operate a 789 as opposed to a 77W? Perhaps there's data out there that says otherwise, but it doesn't appear to me that SEA is that strong to TYO. Two carriers on it is probably more than enough.

He didn't say the SEA-NRT market has never been stronger, but rather the SEA market as a whole.

This thread is about where JAL could possibly add service, and seeing as though that service would be from Tokyo to possibly SEA, one would presume airzona11 was trying to keep their post relevant to SEA-NRT market, which is what I based my post on.

Talking about SEA as a whole really isn't relevant in this thread. If one wants to debate SEA as a whole then start a new thread, though I believe there is already one.

alexwm wrote:

One of my bets is BCN, which doesn't have any direct flight to Tokyo yet. 178,000 passengers flew between the two in 2016. Air China is starting BCN to PVG 6x week, a route that had 100,000 passengers in the same period.

if JAL doesn't make BCN happen, then Level definitely will. it was in their initial rumors, and they are aware at the amount of lift between Spain and Europe as of late.

I think MAN is likely. FCO and MXP both have daily Alitalia 330s, but we could see some competing. plus AMS is a bigger market that also only has one carrier

we speculate all this and watch there be no new destinations announced.

clrd4t8koff wrote:

jbs2886 wrote:

clrd4t8koff wrote:

If the SEA-NRT market has never been stronger, why haven't UA or AA returned? Why has DL gone from a 747 -> 777 -> 767 on the route? Why does NH only operate a 789 as opposed to a 77W? Perhaps there's data out there that says otherwise, but it doesn't appear to me that SEA is that strong to TYO. Two carriers on it is probably more than enough.

He didn't say the SEA-NRT market has never been stronger, but rather the SEA market as a whole.

This thread is about where JAL could possibly add service, and seeing as though that service would be from Tokyo to possibly SEA, one would presume airzona11 was trying to keep their post relevant to SEA-NRT market, which is what I based my post on.

Talking about SEA as a whole really isn't relevant in this thread. If one wants to debate SEA as a whole then start a new thread, though I believe there is already one.

The DL/NW route SEA-NRT has followed the downgrade in the status of the NRT hub. It was key to access to Japan and beyond. While true not all of Seattle's ties are to TYO in particular, a JAL flight would allow a quick 1stop connect to ITM/KIX, NGO, etc. SEA economy has strong ties to Japan and then China, that is a market OneWorld and JAL can no doubt tap into. Maybe the efficiency of new aircraft makes it do-able.

airzona11 wrote:

clrd4t8koff wrote:

jbs2886 wrote:

He didn't say the SEA-NRT market has never been stronger, but rather the SEA market as a whole.

This thread is about where JAL could possibly add service, and seeing as though that service would be from Tokyo to possibly SEA, one would presume airzona11 was trying to keep their post relevant to SEA-NRT market, which is what I based my post on.

Talking about SEA as a whole really isn't relevant in this thread. If one wants to debate SEA as a whole then start a new thread, though I believe there is already one.

The DL/NW route SEA-NRT has followed the downgrade in the status of the NRT hub. It was key to access to Japan and beyond. While true not all of Seattle's ties are to TYO in particular, a JAL flight would allow a quick 1stop connect to ITM/KIX, NGO, etc. SEA economy has strong ties to Japan and then China, that is a market OneWorld and JAL can no doubt tap into. Maybe the efficiency of new aircraft makes it do-able.

Exactly. If we followed the logic that an airline wasn't using a larger aircraft and other airlines haven't returned/started a route that the route isn't strong or another airline shouldn't start it, we would have no new routes. And, as airzona11 pointed out, a strong economy in SEA generally is relevant to a discussion of why a SEA-NRT flight on JAL is possible.

A lot of the OneWorld flyers are currently routing through Vancouver or Chicago when they travel from Seattle to east Asia. So I think if JL starts Seattle, the demand will be there, not necessarily all coming from NH and DL but from other OneWorld hubs.

airzona11 wrote:

clrd4t8koff wrote:

jbs2886 wrote:

He didn't say the SEA-NRT market has never been stronger, but rather the SEA market as a whole.

This thread is about where JAL could possibly add service, and seeing as though that service would be from Tokyo to possibly SEA, one would presume airzona11 was trying to keep their post relevant to SEA-NRT market, which is what I based my post on.

Talking about SEA as a whole really isn't relevant in this thread. If one wants to debate SEA as a whole then start a new thread, though I believe there is already one.

The DL/NW route SEA-NRT has followed the downgrade in the status of the NRT hub. It was key to access to Japan and beyond. While true not all of Seattle's ties are to TYO in particular, a JAL flight would allow a quick 1stop connect to ITM/KIX, NGO, etc. SEA economy has strong ties to Japan and then China, that is a market OneWorld and JAL can no doubt tap into. Maybe the efficiency of new aircraft makes it do-able.

While I don't doubt you, if Seattle has strong ties to Japan and China, why does DL only operate 767's to NRT, PEK, PVG? DL has a decent size hub now at SEA that would provide connections to support O&D. One would think with such strong ties they could at least run A330's or 777's. Similar argument with NH - with a hub on the NRT end wouldn't they be able to support a larger aircraft than a 789? And now we're debating a third carrier coming in?

Overthecascades wrote:

A lot of the OneWorld flyers are currently routing through Vancouver or Chicago when they travel from Seattle to east Asia. So I think if JL starts Seattle, the demand will be there, not necessarily all coming from NH and DL but from other OneWorld hubs.

I'm just trying to follow this logic. Traveler's from other OneWorld hubs like ORD & DFW are going to fly via SEA on JL instead of flying non-stop on JL or AA from ORD/DFW-NRT?

clrd4t8koff wrote:

If the SEA-NRT market has never been stronger, why haven't UA or AA returned? Why has DL gone from a 747 -> 777 -> 767 on the route? Why does NH only operate a 789 as opposed to a 77W? Perhaps there's data out there that says otherwise, but it doesn't appear to me that SEA is that strong to TYO. Two carriers on it is probably more than enough.

The capacity on the route is way down from pre-9/11, when it was 2x daily 777 (AA/United) and a daily 747 (Northwest). Today it's just Delta's 767 and ANA's 787. That said, this has also coincided with a dramatic increase in nonstop capacity - by Delta and Asian carriers - between SEA and many of the markets that used to require a NRT connection.

All that said, two interesting dynamics have emerged over the course of this evolution in the SEA-TYO and SEA-Asia market that still nag at me to think that JAL could make a 787 work NRT-SEA. First off, SEA is - I suspect - now by far the largest U.S.-TYO O&D market the AA/JAL JV is absent as a nonstop competitor. As SEA's prominence as a city and commercial center rises, I still contend that AA/JAL may want to get in on some of that business - and a 787 represents a relatively economical and low-risk means of doing that. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Alaska's SEA hub has grown tremendously in the the last decade, and Alaska very soon is likely going to face the prospect of minimal convenient connectivity from its largest hub to Asia on "friendly"/"partner" airlines. For years Alaska has relied on Delta and Korean for much of this connecting feed to/from Asia. Now, even with Hainan and Cathay, I suspect Alaska would love the prospect of a "friendly" JAL flight to send this traffic on, rather than having to continuing relying on interline with arch-competitor Delta.

Be great to see turn to AKL. If Air NZ is able to operate 10 789's to NRT and 3 to KIX during the peak, with this year 7 - NRT, 3 - HND and 3 - KIX,, surely JAL must have some sort of market to offer a NZ service. Notice NH is going to operate a one off KIX-AKL 773 charter end of April, hopefully more will follow and eventually become scheduled service

I personally hope that MEL-NRT will be one of the routes! Funnily enough, when QF took over JQ's service, JL didn't bring their code over, though I don't think JL code shares with QF on any of its Australia-Japan direct services, only via SIN.

clrd4t8koff wrote:

Overthecascades wrote:

A lot of the OneWorld flyers are currently routing through Vancouver or Chicago when they travel from Seattle to east Asia. So I think if JL starts Seattle, the demand will be there, not necessarily all coming from NH and DL but from other OneWorld hubs.

I'm just trying to follow this logic. Traveler's from other OneWorld hubs like ORD & DFW are going to fly via SEA on JL instead of flying non-stop on JL or AA from ORD/DFW-NRT?

No. Seattle and northwest region flyers who are OW customers and are now flying thru Vancouver and Chicago etc. I thought I said it pretty clearly.

Overthecascades wrote:

clrd4t8koff wrote:

Overthecascades wrote:

A lot of the OneWorld flyers are currently routing through Vancouver or Chicago when they travel from Seattle to east Asia. So I think if JL starts Seattle, the demand will be there, not necessarily all coming from NH and DL but from other OneWorld hubs.

I'm just trying to follow this logic. Traveler's from other OneWorld hubs like ORD & DFW are going to fly via SEA on JL instead of flying non-stop on JL or AA from ORD/DFW-NRT?

No. Seattle and northwest region flyers who are OW customers and are now flying thru Vancouver and Chicago etc. I thought I said it pretty clearly.

To me your post was neither clear nor intelligent. Nobody is flying Seattle/Northwest BACK to ORD to turn around and fly back west to Asia. Maybe they'll fly a little south to SFO or LAX to connect to OW carrier. But back to ORD?

clrd4t8koff wrote:

Overthecascades wrote:

clrd4t8koff wrote:

I'm just trying to follow this logic. Traveler's from other OneWorld hubs like ORD & DFW are going to fly via SEA on JL instead of flying non-stop on JL or AA from ORD/DFW-NRT?

No. Seattle and northwest region flyers who are OW customers and are now flying thru Vancouver and Chicago etc. I thought I said it pretty clearly.

To me your post was neither clear nor intelligent. Nobody is flying Seattle/Northwest BACK to ORD to turn around and fly back west to Asia. Maybe they'll fly a little south to SFO or LAX to connect to OW carrier. But back to ORD?

Your comment is pointless. There're lots of people who fly thru Chicago. Btw sfo is not a ow hub neither does it save time from Seattle.

The New Zealand market is growing rapidly again after years in the doldrums. I think HND/NRT-AKLnwith maybe a CHC triangle.

Overthecascades wrote:

clrd4t8koff wrote:

Overthecascades wrote:

No. Seattle and northwest region flyers who are OW customers and are now flying thru Vancouver and Chicago etc. I thought I said it pretty clearly.

To me your post was neither clear nor intelligent. Nobody is flying Seattle/Northwest BACK to ORD to turn around and fly back west to Asia. Maybe they'll fly a little south to SFO or LAX to connect to OW carrier. But back to ORD?

Your comment is pointless. There're lots of people who fly thru Chicago. Btw sfo is not a ow hub neither does it save time from Seattle.

There's lot of people who fly thru Chicago to go EAST, not to backtrack back to Asia. This is a thread about Asia, not just people randomly flying through Chicago.

No, SFO is not a OW hub, but neither is Vancouver and you had no problem referencing that. But back to my original point - NOBODY is flying from Seattle/Northwest back to East to Chicago to turnaround and fly back west to Asia.

whywhyzee wrote:

Polot wrote:

DXBDFWHGA wrote:

I'm surprise that JAL does not fly to YYZ.

I'm not. 2x daily AC flights to Tokyo connecting to their *A partner ANA and one of which is operating to the preferred airport, HND. JL lacks the Canadian HND authority to respond from there (ANA has it for YVR) and would be competing against an airline partnership with hubs on both ends of the market.

The motivations JAL would have would be to serve YYZ as it becomes more and more of a global city. Feed/airport aside, there comes a point when a city hits a level that makes it justifiable because of it's importance. Toronto may not be there yet, but it certainly is a city on the rise, makes me proud to have grown up there, it's staggering to look back and see how it's changed in the past 10 years.

If JAL can work a deal with WestJet, it could become a valuable city, I don't read into NRT vs HND being the deal breaker here.

JAL tried YYZ in early 1990s, but at that time, the schedule made it difficult for same-day connection at NRT to other Asian cities. Of course, back then, JAL does not have connection business in mind.

But now it would be different. If JAL can capture connection traffic between China/Taiwan/HKG/Philippines/Korea and YYZ, and with the O&D traffic, it would be more than sufficient to fill a 787 daily.

clrd4t8koff wrote:

Overthecascades wrote:

clrd4t8koff wrote:

To me your post was neither clear nor intelligent. Nobody is flying Seattle/Northwest BACK to ORD to turn around and fly back west to Asia. Maybe they'll fly a little south to SFO or LAX to connect to OW carrier. But back to ORD?

Your comment is pointless. There're lots of people who fly thru Chicago. Btw sfo is not a ow hub neither does it save time from Seattle.

There's lot of people who fly thru Chicago to go EAST, not to backtrack back to Asia. This is a thread about Asia, not just people randomly flying through Chicago.

No, SFO is not a OW hub, but neither is Vancouver and you had no problem referencing that. But back to my original point - NOBODY is flying from Seattle/Northwest back to East to Chicago to turnaround and fly back west to Asia.

It's apparent by now you're not a OW frequent flyer. I know several people personally who fly out of Seattle to Asia via Yvr and ORD. And they fly business class. You have no clue

raylee67 wrote:

whywhyzee wrote:

Polot wrote:

I'm not. 2x daily AC flights to Tokyo connecting to their *A partner ANA and one of which is operating to the preferred airport, HND. JL lacks the Canadian HND authority to respond from there (ANA has it for YVR) and would be competing against an airline partnership with hubs on both ends of the market.

The motivations JAL would have would be to serve YYZ as it becomes more and more of a global city. Feed/airport aside, there comes a point when a city hits a level that makes it justifiable because of it's importance. Toronto may not be there yet, but it certainly is a city on the rise, makes me proud to have grown up there, it's staggering to look back and see how it's changed in the past 10 years.

If JAL can work a deal with WestJet, it could become a valuable city, I don't read into NRT vs HND being the deal breaker here.

JAL tried YYZ in early 1990s, but at that time, the schedule made it difficult for same-day connection at NRT to other Asian cities. Of course, back then, JAL does not have connection business in mind.

But now it would be different. If JAL can capture connection traffic between China/Taiwan/HKG/Philippines/Korea and YYZ, and with the O&D traffic, it would be more than sufficient to fill a 787 daily.

O/D alone should account for most of the route, connection to any of those destinations, all of which have direct flights to YYZ would take a bite out of yields. I think if they were to want to run YYZ, it would have to be geared towards Japan traffic, with the ability to connect to places that lack service, like Vietnam/Thailand/Singapore and other southeast Asian destinations that are out of reach. On the Canadian side, working with WestJet could help them bring in feed from eastern Canada, which fills in any gaps from YYZ.

Overthecascades wrote:

clrd4t8koff wrote:

Overthecascades wrote:

Your comment is pointless. There're lots of people who fly thru Chicago. Btw sfo is not a ow hub neither does it save time from Seattle.

There's lot of people who fly thru Chicago to go EAST, not to backtrack back to Asia. This is a thread about Asia, not just people randomly flying through Chicago.

No, SFO is not a OW hub, but neither is Vancouver and you had no problem referencing that. But back to my original point - NOBODY is flying from Seattle/Northwest back to East to Chicago to turnaround and fly back west to Asia.

It's apparent by now you're not a OW frequent flyer. I know several people personally who fly out of Seattle to Asia via Yvr and ORD. And they fly business class. You have no clue

I don't need to be a OW frequent flyer to have enough common sense to know that people do not regularly fly from Seattle -> Chicago -> Asia. But I'm sure you also want to convince me that people fly Seattle -> Honolulu -> Europe. You have no clue.

JL only has two day time HND slots. I seriously doubt they will give up JFK and SFO for IAH and that airport in Michigan.

If those airports were printing $ to HND, than why didn't DL, UA, and NH use those slots for routes from IAH and Michigan city to HND? Heck, DL thought MSP was better (or as Michigan people would say, keep AA off HND-DFW) that Michigan city did not get HND daytime service.

Overthecascades wrote:

clrd4t8koff wrote:

Overthecascades wrote:

It's apparent by now you're not a OW frequent flyer. I know several people personally who fly out of Seattle to Asia via Yvr and ORD. And they fly business class. You have no clue

I don't need to be a OW frequent flyer to have enough common sense to know that people do not regularly fly from Seattle -> Chicago -> Asia. But I'm sure you also want to convince me that people fly Seattle -> Honolulu -> Europe. You have no clue.

You are clueless, because you are trying to dispute facts. Jeez some people just have to force their opinion on others. You can skip my posts going forward. You are wasting internet resources.

What facts am I disputing? You've given no data or sources to data that supports your claim lots of OW passengers backtrack to ORD from SEA to catch flights to Asia.

What I'm disputing is your claim, not facts. And for the record - The only person wasting internet resources is yourself with your baseless claim.

Return to AMS would be nice

Shenyang?

BuildingMyBento wrote:

Shenyang?

Shenyang will be nice.
The overnight going to many Asian cities from Americas can be inconvenient for many travelers.

Any update?

A daily JAL NRT-SMF 787 flight would nicely complement JAL's existing SFO-HND flight and round-out JAL's service to NorCal. Would reduce passenger leakage from the SMF catchment area to SFO for Asia-bound traffic.

airportugal310 wrote:

I guarantee that you will see HND/NRT-KOA sometime soon...

Agreed. JL reps were in KOA last week, from what I hear, looking for ground handlers.

77H

With the new SEA international terminal, we'll see DL increasing nonstop flights to non-Japan.

Also with the new terminal will be a new opportunity for JAL to connect AS passengers.

Other opportunities could be found in NGO to the west coast. By 2025, it will have a second runway and with the new Maglev connecting Nagoya to Tokyo in less than an hour, NGO will be an honorary "Tokyo 3rd airport". JAL could attempt to bring back NGO-LAX with a 787.

dolphinflyer wrote:

A daily JAL NRT-SMF 787 flight would nicely complement JAL's existing SFO-HND flight and round-out JAL's service to NorCal. Would reduce passenger leakage from the SMF catchment area to SFO for Asia-bound traffic.

My uneducated guess is no. Sacramento-Tokyo really? NH has SJC-NRT and obviously SFO-HND/NRT (and SFO-Asia) are more than well served. Why would any Japanese carrier want to fly to Sacramento? That does not make any sense to me.

JAL earnings event is Apr 28.
Analyst expect 2nd year of continued decline in profits.

JAL's operating profit seen diving 20% on costs
http://asia.nikkei.com/Markets/Tokyo-Ma ... abor-costs


Since things are not that rosy, I would not expect any spectacular announcements. JAL is a conservative company and its management has repeatedly said their focus is on profits and not on growth for the sake of growth.

EddieDude wrote:

dolphinflyer wrote:

A daily JAL NRT-SMF 787 flight would nicely complement JAL's existing SFO-HND flight and round-out JAL's service to NorCal. Would reduce passenger leakage from the SMF catchment area to SFO for Asia-bound traffic.

My uneducated guess is no. Sacramento-Tokyo really? NH has SJC-NRT and obviously SFO-HND/NRT (and SFO-Asia) are more than well served. Why would any Japanese carrier want to fly to Sacramento? That does not make any sense to me.

Right! There are fanboys who think every airline should be flying A380s all day to every airport from their favorite airport!

TLV?

i think ANA or JAL will start since a new bilateral agreement Israel - Japan was signed a few months ago

There is so much expansion going on Trans-Pacific routes, I wonder who will come out the winner.

Well it's April 28 in Japan 9:40am. Any announcement? Does it have to wait after market close?

Event came and went. No new headline routes announced.

News is that carrier saw both revenues and profits slide, a bad outcome as analyst forecast.

No specific routes were announced, but CEO Yoshiharu Ueki said they'll expand their network "while maintaining balance". They'll also improve seating and airport lounges. http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/JAL-set-to-boost-international-ops-after-smooth-turnaround

Seems like they decided to introduce a new type of seats by ZIM Flugsitz. http://www.flugrevue.de/flugzeugbau/systeme/drei-airlines-entscheiden-sich-fuer-neuen-economy-sitz-von-zim/721078

centrair wrote:

With the new SEA international terminal, we'll see DL increasing nonstop flights to non-Japan.

Also with the new terminal will be a new opportunity for JAL to connect AS passengers.

Other opportunities could be found in NGO to the west coast. By 2025, it will have a second runway and with the new Maglev connecting Nagoya to Tokyo in less than an hour, NGO will be an honorary "Tokyo 3rd airport". JAL could attempt to bring back NGO-LAX with a 787.

That maglev would be priced about the same as current shinkansen which cost 100+USD one way... which mean flights out of NGO would have to be at least 150 USD cheaper than flights out of NRT/HND to be economically attractive to Tokyo-based traveller ...and Nagoya station is another 30 minutes train ride away from NGO. Well, surely when time and price are right it could be an alternative but that's as much as NGO currently being an alternative to KIX or IBR being third Tokyo airport...

According to reports, the theme of JAL's year 2017-2020 midterm operation plan is "challenge, and then growth", with "The world's JAL" x "The value of ahead by a step" = "Ever growing" being keywords and from "JAL Vision".
It said for future growth aftern 2020, they must first start investing, and change JAL from "JAL from Japan" to "the world's JAL", and thus it is necessary to invest in strengthtening services and safety. They have a target of increasing their revenue in core aspect of JAL group which include international and domestic passenger transportation as well as cargo transportation by 10% in 2020 compared to 2016. Additionally they have also created other new income source, like ground handling and also doing maintenance work for other carriers, which they expect to see 30% increase in revenue by 2020 in these aspects.
They have brokwn down actions they would taken into five different aspects, and one of them being their network and goods, services, which is seen as a driver to their international passenger demand. They are going to expand their network to North America and SE.Asia include collaboration with other airlines (another report said they are targeting transfer passengers between USA and SE.Asia), in order to actively ustilize extra airport slots that would be available in 2020 when airport expansions are done. For seats, they are deploying more lie flat business class seats, and their new economy class seat will be on 80-90% planes by 2020. THey are also going to actively start oversea promotion to gather new demand. It is said that they would like to see the ASK on their international route increase by 23% in year 2020 from year 2016.
For domestic operation, while the Japanese domestic market is already saturated, they still plan to increase domestic ASK by about 5% with the expectation of foreign traveller increase from ~2% to 4%
Their targets including safety (with zero aviation incident and zero severe incident), customer satisfaction (evaluated by net promoter score), and profitabiliy (They want to keep the operational profit rate at over 10% and ROIC rate over 9%)

tl;dr they are not saying not to grow, instead they are going to grow their international ASK by 23% in the next 4 years.
The predicted dive in operational profit have been explained as cuase by their increase strategic investment which would be necessary to enable their future growth, and would be mainly focus in developing their IT system as well as acquiring new aircrafts.
(In particular they mentioned that they have invested 80 billion yen in making a new passenger booking site which would be provided by Spanish cloud service provider Amadeus and will be available from this year November to increase overseas accessibility and usability of their website and booking system and improve the way they present themselves overseas)