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TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) --All Nippon Airways, Asia's second-biggest airline, said it would boost the number of flights it operates between Japan and China by 30 percent in 2004, to capture growing business and leisure traffic.
ANA said in a statement it would operate 112 flights a week to China in the year from end-March, compared to the 216 a week that larger rival Japan Airlines System Corp (JAL Group) plans to operate.
JAL Group will offer eight percent more flights than in the previous year.
Both airlines are still on the rebound from a slump in traffic between March and June last year, when the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) forced them to slash capacity, trim costs and heavily discount fares to entice people to travel.
The SARS outbreak dashed plans by JAL Group and ANA to boost flights to the fast-growing Chinese market -- the region worst affected by SARS -- to make up for stagnant demand and falling prices at home.
But with the effects of SARS expected to have faded out by March, both see a strong rebound and continued growth in the long term.
"In terms of population and economic growth China is the obvious growth market.... We can expect that demand between China and Japan is going to grow more and more," JAL Group President Isao Kaneko told Reuters in an interview late last year.
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