One less jumbo jet arriving daily from Tokyo is bad news for the state's tourism industry, still struggling to get back to where it was before Sept. 11. Japanese arrivals to the Islands last week were about 10 to 15 percent less than a year ago.

"Whenever demand increases, we will put on extra flights," said Gilbert Kimura, sales manager for Japan Airlines in Honolulu.

Kimura said the airline is considering cutting one daily flight starting in October, but added that the decision is not official yet.

More Japanese are deciding to stay home or travel to less expensive Asian destinations as the country continues to labor under a stagnant economy and fears of terrorism after Sept. 11.

Japan Airlines, Asia's No. 1 carrier, said passengers flying to Hawai'i and the Mainland were down by more than 18 percent in the peak summer travel season of July 20 to Aug. 18.

Traffic on all international routes fell 6.2 percent during that period to 654,938.

But domestic passenger numbers rose 2 percent to 2.28 million, Japan Airlines said.

The number of Japanese visitors to Hawai'i has been slowly declining since 1997, when Japanese arrivals peaked at 2.2 million. Last year, only 1.5 million Japanese visited the state.

Kimura cautioned against reading too much into the cutting of one flight.

"Hawai'i has always been a lot of peaks and valleys," he said.

The airline may return to four daily Tokyo-Honolulu flights next spring and will certainly be adding flights in the peak year-end travel season, he said.

Japan Airlines has a total of 11 flights daily between Hawai'i and Japan, including flights to Honolulu from cities outside Tokyo and one flight from Tokyo to Kona.

"At year-end, it can go up to 18 or 19 flights," Kimura said.