Japan travellers hit by second flight delay at Tokyo's Haneda

[TOKYO] Japanese travellers checking in for flights this morning from the nation's busiest airport at Haneda were facing flight cancellations for the second time in less than two weeks after Japan Airlines Co scrapped 24 flights Friday.

JAL cancelled the flights due to a malfunction with its baggage-loading system, affecting 3,200 people, according to a faxed statement from the company. Haneda is Asia's second-busiest airport by passenger numbers and Tokyo links some of the busiest air routes in the world.

The problems stand out in Japan, a nation known for the punctuality of its trains and planes. The average delay on bullet trains is about 30 seconds and JAL was voted the world's best airline for on-time performance for 2015. Two years earlier, JAL delayed more than a hundred flights for the same problem.

ANA Holdings Inc, Japan's biggest carrier, scrapped 146 flights last week and delayed hundreds more due to a problem with its check-in system.

BLOOMBERG