Chinese budget carrier gets approval for Japanese airline

BEIJING: Chinese budget carrier Spring Airlines has gained approval for a Japanese joint venture set to begin flying in May.

The new carrier is planning flights from Japan's Narita airport to Saga, Takamatsu and Hiroshima. Shanghai-based Spring Airlines currently flies to the Japanese cities of Ibaraki, Saga and Takamatsu. It holds 33 per cent of the Japanese joint venture, while the remainder is controlled by Japanese funds and other domestic interests.

The new airline could face some headwinds, as tensions between the two neighbors have recently heated up.

"As a private company we are not connected with politics, but want to act as a bridge between Japan and China," said a spokeswoman at Spring Airlines' local office in Japan, who refused to give her name.

Last October, during a flare-up in a dispute between China and Japan over the ownership of a handful of islands in the East China Sea, Spring Airlines was forced to cancel an offer of free tickets to Japan, when nationalist Chinese bloggers attacked the company online and labeled it a traitor.