Japan's All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd (ANA) is set to launch two low-cost carriers -- one for international services, one for domestic -- by sometime in the first half of 2007, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said on Saturday.

The move by ANA, Japan's second-largest airline, would aim at competing with other low-cost carriers ahead of a planned expansion of Tokyo's Haneda Airport, which is scheduled to complete a fourth runway in 2009.

Sources quoted by the Yomiuri Shimbun said that the new carriers would be subsidiaries of ANA and would be able to charge lower fares by cutting the costs of inflight services.

They added that the airline would establish the new companies either by reorganising its five current subsidiaries or establishing totally new firms.

Officials at ANA were not available for comment.