Japan Airlines (JAL) filed for one of the country’s largest bankruptcies in mid-January.

The company has entered a restructuring that will shrink Asia’s top carrier and see around 15,000 jobs cut.

The move came after the Japanese government said it could no longer keep bailing-out the ailing national carrier which has a fleet of 279 aircraft and carries almost 12 million passengers a year on more than 400 routes.

JAL collapsed with $16.5 billion of debt. The government has agreed a $3.3 billion recovery package, on the condition of the bankruptcy filing.

Shortly before the filing for  court-led bankruptcy protection and restructuring, Kazuo Inamori, the founder of electronics maker Kyocera Corp, agreed to take on the role of chief executive to oversea the restructuring which will see JAL emerge as a much leaner operation.