The Airline: StarFlyer

StarFlyer Inc. (株式会社スターフライヤー Kabushiki-gaisha Sutāfuraiyā?) is a Japanese airline headquartered on the grounds of Kitakyushu Airport in Kokuraminami-ku, Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka Prefecture. It is modeled after JetBlue Airways as a "low-cost, high-quality" carrier aimed at business and leisure travelers. The airline began operations on March 16, 2006 and is one of very few in Japan to fly Airbus A320 aircraft. In June 2007 a codeshare agreement for the Haneda–Kitakyushu route began with All Nippon Airways which significantly boosted passenger numbers

StarFlyer was founded as Kobe Airlines (神戸航空 Kōbe Kōkū?) on December 17, 2002 with the intention of being based at the new Kobe Airport. The company changed its name to StarFlyer in May 2003, and moved to Kitakyushu at the end of 2003.


StarFlyer was supported by local companies to provide a regular service initially from the Kitakyushu Airport to Tokyo International Airport (Haneda, HND) 12 times daily, including late evening and early morning flights to allow day returns for business trips and sightseeing. Once the Kitakyushu-Tokyo route is well established the airline plans to open routes to Shanghai, Beijing, and Seoul from Kitakyushu.
On August 17, 2005, StarFlyer announced a business agreement with All Nippon Airways, providing ANA support services for most StarFlyer aircraft and crews.

A booking center opened in Kokura on January 16, 2006. Seats for the first available flights sold out in five minutes confirming the popularity of the new venture especially among business travellers. Kitakyushu City is also requiring its employees to use the airline for all business trips to and from Tokyo.
From June 1, 2007 it began codesharing of its ten daily return flights of Kitakyushu-Tokyo with ANA. The NHK Kitakyushu local news reported on July 10, 2007 that seat bookings had increased to about 70% capacity from 59% after the codesharing began. On November 1, 2008 it also started codesharing on the Kansai-Haneda route.

In April 2008 the company announced that it would begin charter flights to Seoul in July. The airline said it would evaluate the flights to consider whether to start regular service between the two cities (in the meantime, its call center handles reservations for Jeju Air on this route). In addition, it has also prepared to start charter service to Hong Kong.


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