ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS (ANA) plans to expand further its international network and frequencies, in an effort to boost revenues and reduce its heavy dependence on the Japanese domestic market.
The airline is aiming for an 18% increase in its international capacity by the end of the financial year to March, on top of a 24% expansion in 1995. "We're expanding more rapidly and aggressively than at anytime in our history," claims Osamu Nagahata, ANA sales and marketing managing director.
From its two main international hubs at Osaka Kansai and Tokyo Narita Airports, ANA intends to expand its overseas operations to 300 flights a week, serving 28 international destinations by year-end. Much of the growth is directed at popular Asian tourist centres.
International services now account for just under 20% of ANA's total revenue, and it plans to raise this to 35%. More than 95% of the 37 million passengers who ANA carried in 1995 were on domestic routes, and the airline estimates that it carried only around 6% of the 15 million Japanese who travelled overseas.
ANA's longer-term international plans hinge on gaining improved access to the US market, in particular by opening routes from Kansai to Los Angeles, Hawaii, New York and Portland. The carrier already has a 15-month-old memorandum to operate joint services with Delta Air Lines, but the tie-up remains in limbo, pending the agreement of a new US/Japanese bilateral.
A recent US Government attempt to break the deadlock, by again proposing an open-skies arrangement, has met with a cool response. "While in general we support open skies, we do not support US fifth freedoms to the South-East Asian market," says Nagahata.
Source: Flight International
