AirJapan (NQ, Tokyo Haneda) has commenced ticket sales ahead of flights starting on February 9, 2024, with scheduled roundtrips between Narita and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi beginning on that day and scheduled roundtrips on the Tokyo Narita - Seoul Incheon city pair starting on February 22.
AirJapan's controlling entity, ANA Holdings, is promoting its subsidiary as a startup. However, the airline has existed for over two decades, primarily serving as a capacity provider for mainline operations at ANA - All Nippon Airways (NH, Tokyo Haneda). ANA Holdings raised the prospect of starting a stand-alone medium-haul LCC in 2020 to allow the group to better compete with competitors such as ZIPAIR and Scoot. Early in 2022, ANA Holding Koji Shibata confirmed that it would restructure Air Japan into a scheduled LCC. Part of the restructuring and relaunch included eliminating the space between Air and Japan.
AirJapan will focus primarily on medium-haul markets in Asia and Oceania, leaving short-haul international operations to ANA's other subsidiary, Peach Aviation, while the mainline carrier focuses on long-haul markets. AirJapan intends to service its timetable with B787-8s sourced from ANA. ch-aviation fleets data indicates ANA is yet to allocate any aircraft to AirJapan. However, the parent airline has eighty-one B787s, including thirty-six B787-8s.
