Since July 6, 2023, Japan Airlines has been offering its customers a clothing rental service to help them travel lighter. The airline puts forward practical and ecological arguments.
What if you now took the plane without any suitcase? It’s the idea of a Japanese airline which offers its customers the opportunity to rent clothes in Japan in advance so as not to be burdened during their journey. The company explains that this should also allow it to reduce the carbon footprint of each trip. This original campaign has just been launched in Japan by the company Japan Airlines, one of the two major airlines in the country. The project is currently only aimed at foreign travelers arriving in the country.
After booking your plane ticket to Tokyo, Osaka or another major Japanese city, you go to a dedicated website, which works in several languages. Then you enter your travel dates and you choose clothes for your stay, around ten pieces per person. There are several categories “man”, “woman”, for example. There are offers depending on the season but also on your style. You choose between “relaxed” or “a little dressed up”. They’re just pretty simple clothes in slightly pastel colors, nothing original or colorful. The idea is that it works with as many passengers as possible.
>> Tax on large airports: “It will not help invest in new generations of aircraft”, regrets the general director of EasyJet France
You make your choice and your package of clothes is prepared, to be delivered just before your arrival at the hotel in Japan. You disembark and you can change straight away. At the end of your stay, before returning to the airport, you put the clothes back in a special plastic bag which you leave at the reception of your hotel. And you take off again without a suitcase. In total, this service costs between 35 and 45 euros.
Doubts about the ecological benefit
Officially, Japan Airlines explains that it always wants to offer the most peaceful travel conditions possible for its customers. There, they no longer have to stress with suitcases. Japan Airlines also says that this campaign would reduce the carbon footprint for each tourist by around 10%. She calculated that a suitcase weighing ten kilos less in the hold reduces kerosene consumption and therefore emits the equivalent of 70 kilos less CO2 if the flight lasts ten hours. The group also specifies that it uses, for its operation, either second-hand clothing in very good condition, or unsold stocks that were going to be burned. This would also help reduce CO2 emissions.
Japan Airlines will only communicate a real report after the end of this campaign which should last until the end of August 2024. We will then see if many travelers have chosen this trip without a suitcase and especially if the company’s planes have really burned less kerosene. Specialists have doubts. Companies absolutely want to make their flights profitable. And so, often, if travelers and their suitcases weigh less, we fill the planes with more cargo. And overall, the pollution emitted varies relatively little.