Fuji Dream Airlines

Is Fuji Dream Airlines safe?

Yes. Fuji Dream Airlines, known as FDA, has flown since July 2009 without a single accident in the records of the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB): no deaths, no lost aircraft and not even a turbulence injury. We score it 85, level with Solaseed Air and StarFlyer and above Air Do at 84.

It is a small airline flying small jets into some of Japan's harder regional airports. What holds the score back is a 2019 warning over a missed alcohol test, two serious incidents in the last ten years, neither the crew's fault, and a fleet of first-generation Embraers averaging 11 years.

Who is Fuji Dream Airlines?

FDA belongs to the Suzuyo group, a logistics company from Shizuoka. It was set up in 2008 and first flew from the new Mount Fuji Shizuoka Airport in July 2009. It has since built a network around Nagoya's Komaki airfield, Shizuoka and Kobe that links regional cities directly, without a change at Haneda: Aomori, Hanamaki, Yamagata, Niigata, Matsumoto, Izumo, Kochi, Kumamoto, Kagoshima, Fukuoka and both Sapporo airports. In fiscal 2025 it flew 30,035 scheduled flights and 1.84 million passengers, plus about 1,200 charters.

FDA flies under its own operating certificate and code (JH), so its record is its own.

What serious incidents has FDA had?

The JTSB lists three, none with injuries:

• Yamagata, April 2019. At the start of the take-off run to Nagoya an E175 swung left. The crew could not steer with the pedals and rejected the take-off, but the jet left the runway and stopped on the grass. The JTSB found a faulty microswitch had locked the steering in its tiller-only mode; it could not find why the switch failed. Embraer changed its pre-flight check procedure, and FDA trained its pilots in low-speed rejected take-offs.
• Hyakuri, May 2022. An air traffic controller at this air force base cleared an FDA flight from Hiroshima to land on a runway where a vehicle was checking the arrester barrier. The controller saw the vehicle and sent the jet around. The JTSB put the cause on the controllers, who had both forgotten the vehicle during a busy training shift.
• Off Akita, July 2015. Both bleed-air supplies shut down on the climb from New Chitose, the cabin lost pressure and the crew made an emergency descent and landed at Niigata. Faulty fan-air valves were the cause. This is outside our ten-year window.

Only the Yamagata excursion weighs in our score, and lightly, because the cause was a part, not the crew.

What did the regulator find?

One strict warning in 17 years. On 1 February 2019 a first officer on flight 305 from Nagoya to Fukuoka flew without the required pre-flight alcohol test, and the records of licence checks were incomplete. Tokyo's regional aviation bureau issued a written strict warning in March 2019. FDA's safety reports list no regulator action before that, and none from April 2019 to March 2026.

The reports are frank about smaller slips. In fiscal 2025 FDA reported 32 lesser "safety troubles" to the regulator, a rate above its own target. Twelve were dangerous goods, mostly undeclared batteries in passengers' bags, and others included a late post-flight alcohol test and a pilot flying without carrying the licence. In August 2025 a crew rejected a take-off near decision speed at New Chitose. None became a serious incident.

What does FDA fly?

Only the first-generation Embraer E-Jet: at 31 March 2026, two E170s with 76 seats and thirteen E175s with 84 seats. They average 11 years old and each flies about 2,100 times a year, which is a lot of take-offs and landings for a regional fleet. The E-Jet is a fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary design with a good worldwide record; FDA has not announced a replacement.

How to fly FDA safely

FDA's network is harder than most. Matsumoto lies in a valley in the Japanese Alps, Okadama in Sapporo has a short runway, and Aomori, Yamagata and Hanamaki get heavy snow in winter. Expect winter cancellations and diversions, and treat them as a sign the system is working: a flight that turns back from a snowed-in airport is the right call. Book a morning flight on winter trips to the north, so a cancellation still leaves a later flight or a train.

How we scored it

The accident record (92) is clean for 17 years, but the record is too short for the top band. Oversight (86) reflects Japan's strong regulator without confirmed IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary. The fleet (76) is one first-generation Embraer family averaging 11 years. Serious incidents (77) carry the 2019 warning and the Yamagata excursion. The environment (82) reflects snowy and mountain airports. Overall 85.