Photo/Illutration A Sendai Airport worker gives an order to a Japan Airlines plane a day after receiving certification under a new abbreviated program. (Eishi Kado)

Fierce business rivals in the air, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways are calling a truce on the ground to alleviate a severe worker shortage at airports. 

The two airlines separately certified workers qualified to conduct such ground handling as marshalling planes to their proper location and checking in passengers.

But under the new arrangement from April, a worker certified by one of the airlines can perform the same task with the other after completing an abbreviated certification program with that airline.

JAL and ANA have a mutual certification system at 10 airports, including Sendai and Niigata, covering seven ground handling operations, such as loading passenger baggage onto a plane.

Separate certifications were required until now for guiding planes on the ground, even if the two airlines used the same aircraft model.

At Sendai Airport, it took between two to three months to receive the certification for marshalling aircraft, but the new agreement will shorten that time.

When airlines cut down on operations during the novel coronavirus pandemic, many of those working in ground handling left the sector.

According to the transport ministry, as much as 20 percent of the ground handling staff at some airports quit their jobs during the health scare.

But with airline traffic demand returning to pre-COVID-19 levels, a worker shortage in such operations has developed. Some airports have been unable to meet requests from airlines for the resumption of flights.

A continued worker shortage could stall the return of foreign tourists to Japan if flights remain limited.

The government has set a target of 60 million foreign tourists in 2030, a 2.5-fold increase over the number in 2023.

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