Air Japan (Tokyo Haneda) has confirmed that it plans to start flying in February 2024. The subsidiary of ANA - All Nippon Airways (NH, Tokyo Haneda) sister carrier intends to launch with flights around Southeast Asia using B787 aircraft before expanding to other airports around the continent.
The airline revealed details of its cabin amenities on March 9, 2023, saying that it would leverage ANA Holdings' experience in full service and low-cost carriers to provide a comfortable flight at affordable prices. While the announcement did not reveal specific routes, ANA Holdings President and CEO Koji Shibata has previously said that his new airline will target medium haul destinations such as Singapore Changi and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi that are six or seven hours flying time from Japan. Its shorter haul international routes, such as those to Taipei Taoyuan and Seoul Incheon, will be operated by another ANA Holdings subsidiary, Peach Aviation (MM, Osaka Kansai).
At a recent media conference, Shibata said ANA Holdings was focused on regaining revenues, and delegating new and existing routes to subsidiary carriers such as Air Japan was integral to this strategy. ANA Holdings' international passenger yield for this financial year is forecasted to be 20% less than pre-pandemic levels, recovering to 5% less by the 2025 financial year. Air Japan is expected to target a different market to the ANA - All Nippon Airlines full service product, but it will compete directly with the established JAL - Japan Airlines (JL, Tokyo Haneda) subsidiary, ZIPAIR (ZG, Tokyo Narita), and the likes of Scoot (TR, Singapore Changi) and VietJetAir (VJ, Hanoi Noi Bai International), which all operate widebody mid-market flights around Asia from their various hubs.
ANA - All Nippon Airways has seventy-nine B787s in its fleet, including three B787-10s, thirty-six B787-8s, and forty B787-9s. There is also an outstanding order for a further eight B787-9s. It is not known how many aircraft ANA Holdings intends to initially allocate to Air Japan. However, they have indicated flights will be operated by a single class aircraft offering around 330 seats.
