Don’t fly JAL

Japan's transport ministry issued a second business improvement order on Tuesday against Japan Airlines Co over a series of drinking incidents involving its pilots, despite an initial reprimand issued last December.

It is the first time that an air carrier has received such a reprimand twice over the same problem, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said. The first order was issued after a JAL co-pilot was convicted in Britain last November for being around 10 times over the country's legal alcohol limit prior to a London-Tokyo flight the previous month.The incident caused a flight delay and the pilot has since been dismissed.

Nevertheless, problems continued, with alcohol detected in the system of a pilot on a Shanghai-Tokyo flight in April, and similar incidents involving crew on domestic flights reported in subsequent months.

The ministry gave the second order as it judged the company's in-house training on alcohol consumption insufficient.

Last December, four other Japanese airlines were warned by the ministry over issues involving excessive drinking by their pilots..