Spring Airlines (9C, Shanghai Hongqiao) has put on ice its plans to expand international routes to Japan amid rising tensions between China and Japan over the disputed Diaoyu Islands. While the Chinese Low Cost Carrier has not mentioned any destinations by name, it is believed that Sapporo Chitose, Shizuoka and Miyazaki were amongst the new routes planned. Spring's chairman Wang Zhenghua says the airline will instead focus on launching flights to "other Asian destinations". Wang added that Spring will retain its three current Japanese routes to Ibaraki, Saga and Takamatsu, but “might” review the expansion freeze should the two countries reconcile. In better news however, Spring’s plans to launch domestic operations in Japan seem to be going ahead with the first B737-800 JA01GR (MSN 39429) for Spring Airlines Japan (Tokyo Narita) having just recently operated its first flight on April 1 ahead of delivery.