TOKYO (Dow Jones) – All Nippon Airways Co. sees the bankruptcy of Japan Airlines Corp. as an opportunity to expand its international business significantly and emerge even stronger than its larger rival, a top executive said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

"We need to get stronger when they are sick," said Keisuke Okada, an ANA board member and executive vice president of alliances and international affairs. "It's like the penalty box in a hockey game - if you have someone in the penalty box, then that is the opportunity to catch up and get stronger."

"I have been waiting for this for more than 30 years," said Mr. Okada, a 36-year veteran of ANA, referring to JAL' s bankruptcy filing.

It was ANA's first high-level interview since JAL's bankruptcy filing on Tuesday. Mr. Okada, 58 years old, has spent his entire career at ANA, starting as a mechanic before rising through the ranks.
A JAL spokeswoman declined to comment on Mr. Okada's remarks.

JAL, Asia's leading carrier by revenues, filed Japan's largest non-financial bankruptcy protection petition on Tuesday, saddled with a debt load of $25 billion.

ANA has nearly always been overshadowed by JAL, its larger and more prestigious peer, for decades. In the fiscal year ended March 30, JAL's revenues were about 40% bigger--1.9 trillion yen to ANA's 1.4 trillion yen.

But over the years, the nimbler ANA's reputation has grown thanks to its extensive route structure--a product of its participation in the Star Alliance airline group--and its impeccable service.

Financially, ANA has not been receiving government handouts, and tapped the capital markets independently in July via a new share issue, raising 141.7 billion yen.

The fact that JAL will be aided by a $10 billion lifeline from the Japanese government through capital injections and credit over the next three years has angered ANA, which has said the subsidies could provoke fierce price competition if JAL lowers its prices in order to fill empty planes.

ANA is set to expand its international route structure over the next three years, and said it would take advantage of the fact that JAL is scaling back its international presence to develop its own network.

"We are going to capture any opportunity to make our customers happier. If JAL is going to shrink and cut routes, we are happy to pick those up," said Mr. Okada. "We don't want to copy JAL's routes, but carefully study which routes are good for our customers."