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Virgin Australia has deepened its partnership with Japan’s largest airline, All Nippon Airways (ANA).
Under the expanded codeshare agreement, customers will be able to book ANA flights directly through Virgin Australia’s website, as well as earning Velocity frequent flyer points and status credits on ANA services.
According to Velocity Frequent Flyer CEO Nick Rohrlach, this will benefit passengers connecting from Virgin and ANA’s Australian services to destinations such as Sapporo, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Osaka-Itami, Kochi, Osaka-Kansai, Kumamoto, Nagoya, Nagasaki, Oita, Okinawa and Miyazaki.
“From today, our 11.5 million members can earn Points and Status Credits on flights to more than 130 additional destinations through ANA’s global network across Japan, Asia, North America and Europe,” he said.
“Following the commencement of our inaugural Cairns to Tokyo (Haneda) service last month, it is fantastic to be opening up more opportunities for our guests and members when travelling to, and within, Japan, with the nation’s largest airline.”
Virgin began services from Cairns to Haneda on 28 June. Originally intended to launch with the airline’s new 737 MAX aircraft, the first flights have been operated by 737-700s due to delays at Boeing. The airline will fly daily between Cairns and Tokyo year-round.
The service was enabled through the Queensland government’s Attracting Aviation Investment Fund and will provide more than 2,000 seats per week between Cairns and Haneda with same-day connections to major Australian cities.
For its part, ANA last month announced it would resume its Perth to Tokyo (Narita) route on 29 October, flying return services three times per week on Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and adding almost 75,000 seats back into the market. The route was popular both inbound and outbound until it was suspended in March 2020, said Perth Airport acting CEO Kate Holsgrove.
“The return of ANA to Perth is a major step forward in rebuilding international aviation connections and we expect there to be huge demand for this route when it resumes later this year,” she said.
“We will continue to work closely with ANA to rebuild confidently towards a daily service with strong passenger demand all year-round.”
