Business Notes AIRLINES

Most travelers eat airline food only because at 30,000 ft. they have few alternatives. But Japan Air Lines thinks its in-flight cuisine is so good that it can draw diners at ground level. In a novel promotion, JAL has opened its own restaurant, complete with a genuine cabin crew. Customers at the Osaka restaurant pay as much as $75 apiece to savor such in-flight specialties as flounder steamed in wine and red snapper stuffed with crayfish. To whet their appetite for travel, JAL has patrons enter a replica of a Boeing 767 cabin to watch a 5-min. videotape that highlights JAL destinations. Reservations for the restaurant, which will be open until September at Osaka's flower exposition, can be booked through the airline's ticketing system. The experience, however, is not entirely authentic. Diners are not required to wear a seat belt.