JAL Group has established a corporate venture fund Japan Airlines Innovation Fund as a vehicle to invest in promising start-up companies.

The Japanese group will inject USD70 million in the fund for an investment period of 10 years. The fund will be managed by TransLink Management JAL Innovation in partnership with California-based TransLink Capital.

The fund will focus on the areas of personalised travel experience, seamless transportation methods, means of replacing the physical movement of people, and added value in the travel experience.

Separately, JAL - Japan Airlines (JL, Tokyo Haneda) also announced it will enter in a joint venture with a general trading company (sogo shosha) Marubeni Corporation to create a new business jet operator, JAL Business Aviation Co. JAL will hold a 51% stake in the new operator. It will have a paid-up capital of JPY150 million yens (USD1.4 million) and is expected to launch in spring 2019.