Issue 334: The Force Awakens

Sydney was ANA’s fourth new international destination in 2015 as the airline embarks on a period of international growth as part of rebalancing its domestic and international networks and takes advantage of its home country’s growing popularity among overseas tourists due to a weaker Japanese yen.

The arrival of flight NH879, which was met with an ARFF monitor cross, was the first time since 1999 that ANA has been present in Australian skies.

ANA senior vice president for marketing and regional general manager for Asia and Oceania Kenya Inada says it is great to have Sydney part of the network again.

Inada says the Australia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which was signed in July 2014, as well as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact between 12 Pacific countries, would support travel between Australia and Japan.

The ANA executive noted demand has grown since the airline last flew here in 1999.

“At the end of the ’90s when ANA stepped out of the market, the total capacity from full service carriers between Australia and Japan dramatically dropped,” Inada tells Australian Aviation in an email≈interview.

“However, in recent times, we have been seeing the increasing number of Australian visitors going to Japan and it is growing by about 20 per cent each year.

Sydney was ANA’s fourth new international destination in 2015

“The EPA and TPP are expected to grow and strengthen the economic ties between the two countries. Considering these factors, ANA is confident in being successful in the market. ” Indeed, Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) statistics indicated 297,200 Australians visited Japan in the 10 months to October 2015, up 22. 4 per cent compared with the prior corresponding period.

A weaker yen has made Japan an even more popular destination for all tourists, with visitor numbers up 48. 2 per cent, the JNTO said.

In terms of Japanese heading to this country, the latest figures from Tourism Australia showed there were 29,000 Japanese visitors to Australia in October, an increase of 3. 2 per cent from a year earlier. However, the number of Japanese arrivals in Australia so far in calendar 2015 has been flat.

ANA joins Qantas on the Sydney- Haneda route, while Japan Airlines flies from Sydney to Tokyo- Narita. Qantas also offers a daily Brisbane-Narita service, while its low-cost subsidiary Jetstar serves Tokyo/Narita and Osaka/Kansai from various Australian ports, including the launch in July 2015 of nonstop Melbourne-Narita flights.

Airlines such as Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines also offer compelling, and often competitively priced, one-stop alternatives through their respective hubs. A 2014 analysis from CAPA – Centre for Aviation found 30 per cent of all Australia-Japan traffic was carried by these one-stop carriers.

Inada says he expects leisure travellers to comprise the bulk of passengers on its flights early on, given many Japanese look to places such as Australia to escape the cold winter months. However, as the seasons change and ANA raises its profile in the Australian market, the airline hopes to pick up more business travellers.

Connecting passengers will also support the route which, like Qantas’s 747-400 flights between Sydney and Tokyo/Haneda, is a red-eye overnight service in both directions. ANA flies to about 40 destinations within Japan from Haneda – which is much closer to the Japanese capital’s central business district than Narita – and offers international flights to the likes of London Heathrow, Vancouver, Frankfurt, Beijing and Los Angeles.

“We expect the connecting demand to be around 30 per cent of total demand, in which about 20 per cent are from/to domestic Japanese destinations, and about 10 per cent are from/to other international destinations,” Inada says.

“Our priority remains on maximising the convenience for our passengers, which is to secure the connectivity with domestic flights at Haneda and to let our passengers have maximum stay in the destination.

“We are expecting strong demand from both ends of the Australian and Japanese markets. ” The airline has established an interline agreement with Virgin Australia for onward connections beyond Sydney, with talks underway for further cooperation.

“There are no imminent plans for codeshare at the moment but it is currently in discussions,” Inada says.

The latest monthly report on international airline activity from Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics indicated loads on Australia-Japan flights were quite healthy. The airlines carried 910,120 passengers in the 12 months to June 30 2015, with an average seat factor of 78. 3 per cent.

And capacity, measured by available seats, is on the up after years of decline. In 2014/15 there were a touch under 1. 2 million nonstop seats between Australia and Japan, up about six per cent from the prior year.

While encouraging, the figures are a long way away from the heady levels reached in the 1990s when there were more than 2. 5 million seats a year between Australia and Japan, with Qantas the dominant carrier on the route. In 1999, the last time ANA flew to Australia, total seat capacity was still about two million.

International expansion has been a big focus at ANA in recent times, with Sydney joining new destinations Houston, Kuala Lumpur and Brussels in 2015. And the carrier recently announced it would fly to Wuhan, China from April 2016, with more to come. However, Sydney is expected to remain ANA’s sole Australian destination for now.

“In next financial year, we will continue our international expansion plans, particularly in Asia where air traffic is expected to grow,” Inada says.

“ANA currently has no plans to expand its Australian network apart from our Haneda-Sydney route. ”