Critics say the airline's problem lies in a bureaucratic corporate structure that dates back to the days of being a government-owned national airline. That rigidity, they say, has persisted despite efforts at change and despite deregulation in Japan and abroad. The airline became privately owned in 1987.

"Japan Airlines has been hit harder by the wave of rationalization because it grew up in a greenhouse, protected by the government," said Soichi Kaji, an author of several books and articles on Japan's airline industry.

These critics contend that the airline has overreacted to the new pressures on its bottom line, reducing safety checks, increasing workloads and outsourcing crucial maintenance to cheaper companies in China and elsewhere.

And they say that some of those actions are just extreme examples of the cost-cutting taking place across the industry. Pressure from relentless competition was a prime factor in Delta and Northwest's filings for bankruptcy protection last month.

"It's not just JAL," said Hiroaki Tateno, a Japan Airlines pilot who heads the accident analysis committee of Japan's national pilots' union. "The whole industry is standing on the brink. We're losing our ability to prevent big accidents."

The company says it continues to put a premium on safety. In fact, no Japanese airline has had a fatal accident since 1985, when a Japan Airlines 747 struck a mountain during a domestic flight, killing 520 people. By contrast, American carriers have had 35 fatal accidents in the same period, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

"All the steps we've taken meet the highest safety standards," said Shinobu Kobayashi, deputy senior vice president in charge of safety at the airline. "As a business, we have to cut costs. But we don't cut safety."

Still, the airline has suffered a string of problems. In May, a drop in cabin pressure forced a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 on a flight from New York to Tokyo with 355 people aboard to make an emergency landing in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo. A month later, two front tires fell off a Boeing 767 during a domestic flight. On Aug. 12, the 20th anniversary of Japan Airlines' last fatal crash, the engine of a DC-10 operated by a subsidiary exploded, showering the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka with debris. There were no serious injuries on the ground. Then, on Sept. 7, a flight bound for China had to turn back to Tokyo after a gauge malfunctioned.

The airline, the world's third largest by revenue and sixth largest in terms of passengers, has suffered so many embarrassing mishaps that the chairman resigned in May, the prime minister has ordered safety checks and the Transport Ministry issued a highly unusual order to come up with a plan for improving safety.

The company has said it is taking steps to halt the problems. Some, it said, were caused by human error or mechanical malfunctions. Having so many problems in such a short time span, it said, was just plain bad luck.

But Mr. Tateno, the pilot, and other employees point to several areas where, they claim, the airline has compromised on safety to save money. It has reduced, to one from two, the number of maintenance workers who make between-flight safety checks on mid-size and smaller jets. It has cut the time that jets are on the ground between flights from about an hour to 40 minutes to fit more flights into a day. The airline has also allowed aircraft to carry passengers even when climate control and other systems are not working because a backup system was functioning.

The airline confirms it has taken these steps to save money, but says they do not endanger safety.

The critics' biggest complaint is that the airline sends its jets to low-cost maintenance centers overseas for routine major overhauls, which are critical for the aircraft's safety. Japan Airlines started sending aircraft abroad for overhauls in 1990, and now has contracts for the work with companies in Singapore, New Zealand and China.

Most complaints by employees center on the quality of work done at a maintenance company in Xiamen, China. Employees said planes sometimes came back with more problems than before the overhaul.

"We get the most nervous after heavy maintenance," Mr. Tateno said. "This should be the time when aircraft are safest."

Japan Airlines says other airlines have made similar cuts in the number of workers doing checks and in aircraft turnaround times. Mr. Kobayashi, the airline's safety chief, said the work done overseas was frequently checked by airline employees and government regulators and met rigorous safety standards.

"I don't see any difference between the work done by these companies and work done by JAL employees," Mr. Kobayashi said.

Still, publicity here about the changes and the recent mishaps has made passengers uneasy. The airline said that in the peak summer season of July 22 to Aug. 21, the number of passengers on its domestic flights fell 1.4 percent from a year earlier. In that same period, its main domestic rival, All Nippon Airways, recorded a 3.1 percent increase.

Japan Airlines said a drop in passengers was one reason it posted a loss of 32.04 billion yen, or $297 million, in the second quarter, ended June 30.

The company has started "emergency safety meetings," with airline executives meeting with employees to identify problems. It said it held 220 of the meetings in April and May alone, after the Transport Ministry ordered it to improve safety measures.

Analysts said it might take months or even years for the airline to repair its reputation.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/business/worldbusiness/05air.html