JAL announces departure date

MOSES LAKE - Japan Airlines' Flight Crew Training Center in Moses Lake is expected to close its doors at the Grant County International Airport about Feb. 14, 2009, the company announced.

The business is leaving Moses Lake because it's phasing out older aircraft and due to high fuel prices and the cost of transporting the flight crew to and from Japan, according to JAL.

JAL first announced it was leaving Moses Lake in June. But a departure date wasn't firm and it was initially expected the company was leaving in March.

The airline's final departure date is dependent on the weather and when training is finished, said JAL's executive assistant Brenda Martinez.

Martinez said the company is "very, very sad to be leaving. Over the years, we have trained thousands of young men for the cockpit crew."

She also mentioned the support of the business' neighbors at the Port of Moses Lake and of Moses Lake.

"A lot of great friendships have been built," she said.

Martinez said the company is working on trying to continue its longtime support of the area's sister city program with Yonezawa, Japan.

"We're in the process of working that out and hope to continue that," Martinez said.

In past years, JAL donates airline tickets to five students and two chaperones, she said.

"It has been an honor for Japan Airlines to have been associated with so many wonderful people in the Moses Lake community. We have been so appreciative of their support," stated Teruo Harafuji, senior vice president/general manager of JAL's flight operations division. "We are also thankful for the many relationships we have built over the years and we will never forget the kindness and cooperation that has been extended to us."

The Moses Lake center trains JAL's flight crews on the Boeing 747 and previously taught pilots to fly aircraft such as the Douglas DC8 and Douglas DC10, according to JAL.

Martinez is the only local hire working in Moses Lake, along with five JAL employees from Japan.

Seven Jet Air employees will be out of work after the last training session, Air America Fuel & Service Inc. President and CEO Larry Godden said in June. Air America is a fixed base operator at the port.

The company's replacement training facility will be located in Tokyo, Japan, Martinez said.

JAL's other training centers are located in Napa, Calif., Oita, Japan and Shimojishima, Japan.

Port of Moses Lake Executive Manager Craig Baldwin said the port will be looking at other clients to utilize the hangar for aviation purposes.

Without JAL, the port will lose a landing fee and hangar rent, he said.

"They've been here for 40 years," he said in part. "We're going to miss them when they leave. They've been a great customer, a great community member."