ANA All Nippon Airways To Beef Up Winter Schedule Amid Growing Travel Demand

According to Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) the carrier is in the process of expanding the schedule again as demand is already outperforming supply of flights under the limited schedule.

Especially routes within Asia as well as to/from North America will benefit from this as customer appear to go back on the road to/from these destinations.

With the Olympics now over, vaccinations increasing and more countries in Asia seeking to reopen there has been a higher demand for flights, especially those that go to North America.

Since the U.S. has been very welcoming to travelers from Asia without any restrictions (just a negative Antigen Test) while travelers from the Schengen area and UK are blocked from entering. With vaccines being readily available many including myself have chosen to fly to the U.S. and get it taken care of there rather than sitting it out in South East Asia and rolling the dice with local governments.

ANA is one of the airlines that profits from this demand, the airline has offered reliable connections throughout the pandemic with minimal cancellations and no transit limitations.

As the NIkkei Asian Review now reports ANA will push their current position more and add further frequency to the most popular destinations.

… Japanese airline All Nippon Airways is increasing international flights to meet recovering travel demand in North America and Asia, the company announced on Tuesday.

Flights from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to Seattle in the U.S. will resume in December. There will be one round trip every week from Dec. 4 to the end of the 2021, covering the beginning of the winter holiday season.

As ANA sees more demand for business trips, the airline has revised its flight plans from Oct. 31 through Jan. 11 2022. Flights from Haneda to New York will increase to seven round trips per week, up from five in October, as the number of travelers from Japan to the U.S. have increased.

Flights between Japan’s Narita Airport and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam will increase by two flights to five trips a week during the same period. Return flights between Narita and Jakarta in Indonesia will also increase by two per week, to five.

Flights to and from Europe will also increase, partly due to an increase in freight transport for sectors including automobiles. Flights between Haneda and London, Haneda and Paris, and Narita and Brussels will each increase by one return trip a week. Haneda and Frankfurt flights will increase by three rounds a week.

International flight operations are still lower by about 80% compared to the fiscal 2020 business plan.

These changes will kick in with the Winter schedule from October 31st through the first two weeks of January. Until then ANA might very well modify the schedule again either way depending on their traffic forecasts.

Back in July I booked a Round the World award with ANA miles although that ticket only contained one ANA segment (from Narita to Los Angeles) and it’s rather difficult to find award availability on ANA from Bangkok to Tokyo. There was always something that didn’t fit so I ended up flying Thai. Revenue tickets were available though.

Back in late July one of ANA’s executives said the worst might be over for the carrier.  That was around the time the Olympics took off. It remains to be seen if Japan is going to change their stance on the restrictive entry policies now that this weight of the even has been lifted off their shoulders.

Conclusion

ANA is going to improve their winter schedule, preparing themselves for higher demand in travel especially within Asia and to North America.

It’s hard to say how these frequencies will be serving the actual demand and desire of customers which in the end all depends on immigration regulations.