Japan Airlines will raise regular one-way fares on domestic routes by 500 yen to 1,300 yen in April to cover higher fuel costs, the mishap-prone carrier said.

At the same time, JAL officials said they have canceled the 10 percent wage cut planned for nonmanagerial employees because of opposition from JAL's nine unions. The wage cut was one of the pillars of the struggling airline's reconstruction plan announced in November.

JAL said the higher fares are expected to raise an extra 30 billion yen in revenue in fiscal 2006. The price hikes take effect April 1 and will last through September.

"The rise in fuel prices is not temporary and it goes beyond our self-help efforts," JAL President Toshiyuki Shinmachi told a news conference.

JAL officials said they would continue negotiating for the pay cut, which would be applied to its 22,000 employees starting in January.

"The company will continue talks with the unions in a bid to gain understanding," one official said.

A pay cut affecting about 550 managers will take effect as scheduled in January, the official said.

JAL incurred a group net loss of 12.04 billion yen in the April-September first half of 2005 as high fuel prices and a drop in passengers caused by a series of safety problems reversed the previous year's 82.96 billion yen profit.

The fare hikes will affect all five fare groups and rise in accordance with flight distance.

JAL said it will raise one-way fares by 500 yen, up 3 percent, for flights under 200 km, including those between Kagoshima and Tanegashima, Kagoshima Prefecture, and Naha and Kumejima, Okinawa.

Flights exceeding 1,000 km, including those between Tokyo and Naha, will cost 1,300 yen more, up 11.3 percent.