Skymark Airlines Co. started flights Friday between Tokyo's Haneda airport and Kansai International Airport.
The Haneda-Kansai flight brings the number of routes the domestic carrier flies to four. The last time Skymark launched a new route was in April 2003, between Haneda and Tokushima.
Skymark will operate four round-trip flights between Haneda and Kansai daily this month, and double the number to eight on April 1 through its alliance with Japan Airlines. The two airlines will operate four daily flights each.
Skymark has been using contracts for technical assistance with All Nippon Airways and outsourcing aircraft maintenance to ANA since it entered the business in 1998.
But the maintenance contract will expire at the end of this month, and Skymark has decided to entrust maintenance to a foreign company, officials said, without elaborating.