Earlier in 2019, there was a wave of cooperation on flights between India and Japan, building on the enhanced commercial relationships between the two countries. As of early 2019, Mumbai had only one direct flight to Tokyo on ANA, Delhi had three flights, including one on Air India, JAL and ANA.

ANA had announced the launch of a new flight between Chennai and Tokyo Narita, which is operational as of late October 2019. Japan Airlines had also announced a new flight to be launched between Bengaluru and Tokyo, coming Summer 2020.

Starting in summer 2020, JAL will begin to operate flights from Tokyo Narita to Bangalore, India, marking the first direct connection between Tokyo and Bangalore. This will be the second destination in India that JAL will offer service to. JAL intends to use this flight as a new connection option to travel to the United States, and not just targetting O&D traffic.

JAL has announced the following details for this flight, which are slightly different timings from the original announcement.

JL754 BLR0325 1425NRT 788 D
JL753 NRT1800 0020(+1)BLR 788 D

Most of JAL’s flights to the USA depart between 5:20 – 6:30 pm from Tokyo, except Chicago and Dallas, where American Airlines leaves in the evening. So there is good connectivity. Flights return from the USA to Tokyo Narita around 4:30 pm so convenient connections again to Bangalore.

JAL has now opened reservations for this flight. JAL’s flight is premium heavy, so there will be tonnes of opportunities to fly the JAL Sky Suites, which is one of the best business class products out there.

There are also some great prices for flights, going at about INR 30K for a roundtrip to start, in the Cherry Blossom season. You can also book these flights on MakeMyTrip.com.