Japan Airlines Corp, Asia's largest carrier by sales, will cut its staff by 4,300 by the end of the business year in March 2009, a year earlier than originally planned, Bloomberg News said.

The airline wants to speed up its cost cutting plan, said spokesman Hirokazu Inoue. The Nikkei newspaper reported the job cuts earlier.

JAL is Asia's most indebted carrier and is cutting jobs and selling assets such as hotels and stakes in other business to focus on its core business and return to profit this fiscal year. The Tokyo-based airline lost 64 billion yen (US$517 million) over the past two years.

"They have to do this if they want to get additional loans from their lenders," said Osuke Itazaki, an analyst in Tokyo at Credit Suisse Group. "They need to buy new planes and refurbish their cabins to increase their competitiveness."

JAL is seeking new loans from the Development Bank of Japan, Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp to buy more fuel-efficient planes, the Nikkei said on May 24, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.

The carrier had 1.7 trillion yen of debt outstanding at the end of March. The company has said it has not yet made any decision on new loans.

The airline confirmed at the Paris Air Show that it had ordered 10 planes made by Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA with options on another five.

The carrier will use the aircraft to help reduce overhead costs as part of a program to trim expenses, it said.

The airline in February said it expects to reduce fuel costs by 18 billion yen over the four years to March 2010 as it switches to more fuel-efficient aircraft. It spent 420.8 billion yen on fuel in the fiscal year ended March, or 23 percent of its operating costs.