On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 18:08:46 +1000, "thegoons" <thegoons@bigpond.com> 
>>
>> Yikes.  That's scary.  What aircraft are those?  Can't be all of them, can
>> it?
>
>B747. JAL have the odd short-range B747-400's without winglets also, for
>domestic only. Prob a cost issue, when you consider they run a lot of 747's
>for dom ops; particularly HND-CTS.

They aren't actually short range 747-400's, they are being used in
that role, and in that role, the winglets are a disadvantage, so they
are in storage. Normally JAL aircraft are a little like QF aircraft
used to be. Run out of hours long before they run out of cycles. 

What JAL is doing is running up cycles on these aircraft, at a certain
point, the winglets will be put back on, and they will shift them to
long range operations, while some -400 that have been flying long
range missions and have lots of hours, but not that many cycles, will
have the winglets removed, and will be redployed for short haul
service. to 'even' them out.