Imperial Airlines

Imperial Airlines (インペリアル航空) is a major 5-star airline of Takyoto. Imperial Airlines operates mainly out of its hubs at Nichiro International Airport, Toyokin-Ineku International Airport, and Kyūmura International Airport. It also has focus cites in Tsynghan and Sapporo. From these airports, the airline operates to many airports in Asia, Australasia, and North America. In 2012, it served 13.2 million passengers, which was a 2.7% increase from 2011, when it served 12.9 million passengers. However, it serves more domestic passengers than international passengers, since it operates a very light international route network.

Imperial Airlines was the first airline and only Takyotan airline to order the Shikome 18. It placed an order of 20 Shikome 18's and was the launch customer of the type. It received the first Shikome 18 in mid-March 2013. Imperial Airlines has expanded greatly since it commenced operations in 1961. It has become the second largest airline in Takyoto, after the nation's flag carrier, Takyoto Airways. Although the airline does not have any subsidiary airlines, the airline has expressed interests in some since 2000. However, it does market share deals with Takyoto Airways on the airline Contempo Air. Contempo Air is a low-cost, high-quality service airline. In addition to that, the airline has announced that it may start it's own cargo subsidiary, however, further discussions of this have not been heard of since 2011. The airline is the official sponsor of the Nichiro Dragons.

Origins
The airline's earliest known ancestor was Takyoto Fly (タキョトフライ). Takyoto Fly was the earliest airline to ever make it into the major market system, however, it was also a major failure.

Takyoto Fly had commenced operations in 1934 and had started using the then new Douglas DC-2 aircraft. It operated flights from Toyokin to Tsynghan and Kōdai during the weekdays. Soon, it added the Douglas DC-4 to its fleet in 1940 and started expanding flights from Toyokin to as far as Nichiro and Tokyo. Takyoto Fly had soon gotten a competitor, Island Isle Airways, one of the ancestors for Takyoto Airways. Island Isle Airways proved to be very popular, and had more destinations, and soon Takyoto Fly was failing and needed a merger.

Takyoto Fly soon made a deal to merge with Imperial Airways in 1950, another ancestor for Imperial Airlines. They completed the merger by 1952, and were now the largest airline in Takyoto at the time. They were using a fleet of new Comet and Douglas DC-6 aircraft. Although the Japanese market for aviation was growing and becoming profitable, the new Island Fly Airlines decided to handle more domestic flights.

Incorporation and growth
Island Fly Airlines (島フライ航空) was becoming a mildly successful airline for domestic choices. As Takyoto Airways started routes into northern and eastern Japan, there was no choice but to expand again. However, Island Fly didn't have enough money to expand to profitable destinations farther from Tokyo. So it turned to the Imperial Group and had a complete takeover. It was soon rebranded as Imperial Airlines in 1967. The takeover allowed the airline to have the funds and opportunity that would help it grow out to more international destinations. It soon acquired some Boeing 737 aircraft and debuted the Toyokin to Sapporo route in 1969. It proved to be a big hit, and soon it was expanding to eastern Japan. Despite this, it was still smaller and not as successful as Takyoto Airways. So the airline decided to change its in-flight services, in order to appeal to more customers. At the time, female flight attendants were told to wear kimono-based uniforms. This turned out to be a major success to the advertising market, and made the airline more known to Takyotans.

In 1974, the airline was seeing a major increase in profit and income each year, and was financially stable enough to order some larger aircraft for further expansion. At the time, it was already becoming known as a major airline in Japan and Takyoto, and it would soon be expanding to China, Korea, and the Philippines. However, by the 21st century, half of these new destinations will be terminated. On 1973, the airline ordered 10 Boeing 747SR aircraft. The aircraft entered service in 1974 and was used on high capacity, short-haul routes within Japan and Takyoto.

In addition to the 747SR order in 1973, the airline ordered 20 Boeing 747-200 aircraft for long-range Asian routes. The airplane flew the debut Toyokin to Hong Kong route in 1975 and the Nichiro to Seoul route in 1976. During this time, Imperial Airlines was the dominant carrier for Takyoto, beating Takyoto Airways by passenger count and destination count.

International growth
During the 1980's, the major Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways was becoming known as a major competitor towards Imperial Airlines, and had already begun international expansion. In response to that plan, Imperial began flights into US territories and more Chinese cities. However, it just didn't have the range to go to destinations on the West Coast such as San Francisco or Los Angeles. In order to fulfill this gap, the airline ordered the Boeing 767. It would fly from Toyokin and Nichiro to Los Angeles via Honolulu. Before the 767 order, the airline was taking the Airbus A300 into consideration, however it wasn't what the airline needed. Meanwhile, the airline was losing money on all the spending and research it was doing, and it was once again defeated by Takyoto Airways in 1986. In order to keep up its profitability, Imperial expanded its domestic and short-haul market in order to bring in some extra money. However, it was definitely losing the battle between the two carriers and also between Imperial and ANA.

By 1992, the airline was once again gaining profit and income. It then ordered 50 Boeing 777 aircraft, hoping it would bring in some help when it came to the airline's needed expansion. In the meantime, Imperial kept acquiring more 767's into its fleet for use on expansion into Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The Airbus A320 was brought into the fleet in 1993 to replace its aging Boeing 737-300 and -400 aircraft.

Modern era
On 2002, the airline debuted the longest route in the airline. The route was to be from Toyokin to Rio de Janeiro flown by the Boeing 777-200LR. Despite the accomplishment, it wan't a major success. The route was not bringing in as much passengers as originally thought, and was financially a trouble. The route was pulled from service in late 2004, lasting only 2 years. Shortly after pulling the Toyokin=Rio de Janeiro route, the airline started Toyokin-Dubai.

In order to keep up with the increasing traffic for aviation in Asia, Imperial ordered 65 Boeing 777-300 aircraft to fulfill the capacity. As of November 2012, 43 of the 65 777-300's have been delivered. None of the 777-300's are currently being used to any continent outside of Asia. All 28 Boeing 747-400's were retired in 2009, instead relying on twinjets.

Shikome 18
When Shikome and Sokoya launched the Shikome 18 program in 2007, Imperial Airlines was very interested and helped Shikome design the aircraft. Imperial was originally interested in the Airbus A380, however it decided that it would want to stick with more economically viable aircraft. The Shikome 18 offered a double deck, twin-engine design that could also offer wide seating in a 3-3-3 seating arrangement. The Imperial Group's CEO, who also manages Imperial Airlines said, "Shikome is making an innovation that will forever change aviation. We are glad to announce that we will be ordering it and being the launch customer."

The Shikome 18 planned to have it's first flight in mid-2012, however there were drawbacks and production problems, delaying the first flight. Thus, the introduction of the Shikome 18 into Imperial Airlines's fleet was pushed back into March 2013. This interfered with the expansion of the airline, and soon the airline was having more discussions with Airbus about the A380. However, deals between the two were cancelled, and the A380 was not ordered.

On 14 March 2013, the Shikome 18 was introduced into commercial service with Imperial. The Shikome 18 first flew from Toyokin to Los Angeles on Flight 84. The flight was fully booked, carrying 432 passengers. The flight touched down in Los Angeles at 4:35 PM PST, after departing from Kyūmura International Airport at 11:22 PM TST. Not too long after, flights from Toyokin to San Francisco, New York-JFK, and London-Heathrow were operated with the Shikome 18. However, the London-Heathrow flight has been temporarily suspended after the aircraft that flies the route experienced an in-flight depressurization.

Fleet
Imperial Airlines operates a mixed fleet of wide-body and single-aisle aircraft. It mainly uses aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, but the airline is starting to introduce some Shikome aircraft for the near future. In order to keep the fleet modern and clean, there are inspections of most aircraft every month. The airline also tends to renew its fleet to keep the fleet young.