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All Nippon Airways celebrates 30 years of international service, confirms Mexico and mulls Haneda-New York
March 11th 2016
Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA), which marked 30 years of international operations last Thursday, is expected to soon surpass rival, Japan Airlines (JAL), in terms of overseas passengers. Read More » ANA already has the larger fleet, at 205 aircraft at press time versus 162 at downsized JAL.
"What an effort we've made so far without being discouraged," ANA president and CEO, Osamu Shinobe, said at an anniversary event at Greater Tokyo’s Narita Airport.
Until 1986, Japanese government rules gave JAL a monopoly on international flight services. A partial change in policy in that year allowed ANA to launch its first international operation, Narita to Guam, a long-held ambition of the carrier since it was established in 1952.
In anticipation of the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Shinobe said ANA is considering the launch of a nonstop Haneda-John F Kennedy New York service from late October, following talks with Star Alliance partner United Airlines. Authorities are expected to finalize the allocation of the ten day time landing and take-off slots at downtown Haneda Airport in May. On February 2, Shinobe confirmed ANA is “preparing to launch a new service between Narita and Mexico City in fiscal year 2016”.
Skymark Airlines chairman, Nobuo Sayama, said the bankrupt airline, under shareholder management including ANA (16.5%), would unveil a business plan by April that included international routes and a share sale by 2020.
Sayama said ANA, which is supporting Skymark in areas including code sharing and maintenance, would not provide the maintenance overhaul needed for two of the carrier’s B737s unless Skymark adopted the ANA booking system.
If Skymark “is placed under the umbrella of a major airline, it will lose its freedom of operation and won’t be able to maintain its independence”, said Sayama, who also is a partner at another Skymark shareholder, Integral. “We raised our hands to invest in Skymark because we thought Japan would not have any airline that is run independently” if it failed, he said.
ANA’s 100%-owned LCC, Vanilla Air, plans to fly to Cebu, following its strategy of targeting destinations not served by its parent.
Nagoya Chubu Centrair International’s head of route development, Takashi Hashimoto, this week told Flightglobal the airport will decide this year if it will build an additional terminal and if it would be a dedicated LCC facility designed to attract more tourism to a city best known for its manufacturing capabilities.
