Jetstar Jumps into Low-Cost Japan Travel

Jetstar Japan’s low-cost approach to air travel will be enough to make eager customers jump for joy, if the advertising is to be believed.

But while the ad offers plenty of bright, if not perhaps well-worn scenes from Japan, and the latest carrier says its prices for travel inside Japan will be “on average 40% cheaper” than other domestic flights, the joint venture between Qantas Airways Ltd., Japan Airlines Corp. and Mitsubishi Corp. is joining an gradually more competitive race to win over customers looking for bargains in the notoriously expensive domestic travel market.

While flights for Jetstar Japan will start taking off from the end of 2012, Japan Airlines’ local rival All Nippon Airways Co. is previously gearing up two ventures of its own that will be up and running by then: Peach Aviation Ltd., a joint venture with two Hong Kong investment firms that will be based in Kansai, and AirAsia Japan, a joint venture with Asia’s largest low cost carrier, Malaysia-based AirAsia.