All Nippon Airways (ANA) Boeing 777-381(ER) (28281/488) JA731A climbs from Rwy 25R at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX/KLAX) on January 17, 2013 sporting the carriers "Star Alliance" livery.
(Photo by Michael Carter)
All Nippon Airways (ANA) expects to switch its international growth focus to Tokyo Narita International Airport in 2015 following a dramatic expansion at Haneda Airport this year.
New slots awards at Haneda allowed ANA to build an international hub operation at that airport, which is the closest to downtown Tokyo. However, there are currently no plans for further slot awards at Haneda, so growth there will be limited.
Next year’s expansion will be primarily from Narita, ANA CEO Osamu Shinobe told ATW at the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines conference in Tokyo. The airline is still making its route plans for next year, but international capacity may grow by about 10%, Shinobe said. In contrast, domestic growth will likely remain relatively flat.
The North American market is likely to be one area of growth, despite the high levels of service already on these routes. A priority will be improving links to alliance partner United Airlines’ US hubs, Shinobe said. This could comprise new routes, or additional frequencies. The same applies to Europe, where ANA would like to take greater advantage of the Lufthansa network.
ANA wants to capture more of the traffic flow between the US and Asia by using Narita as an international connecting hub. Most of its European flights are concentrated at Haneda, because few passengers from Europe connect to Asia via Japan.
The airline’s international capacity was up 22% year-on-year for the six months through September, which is ANA’s fiscal first half. This was mostly due to the slot expansion at Haneda. Traffic grew slightly more slowly, rising 19% year-on-year.
Shinobe said the capacity and traffic growth is in line with the carrier’s plans. Demand and capacity increases have been well matched, considering the rapid growth, he said. Inbound travel demand has been growing quickly, particularly from Asia as the Japanese government relaxes visa restrictions for certain countries—a process that is likely to continue.
Long-haul, low-cost carriers (LCCs) are increasing their presence in Asia, but they have little effect on the Japanese market so far, Shinobe noted. However, the short-haul LCC sector is growing rapidly in Japan, and Shinobe said ANA will have to adjust its thinking to this new reality.
However, LCCs still only account for less than 10% of the domestic market—far lower than in the US, Europe or Southeast Asia—so the carrier has some leeway to decide its response. Two of the new LCCs in Japan are partly or wholly owned by ANA, so the group will benefit from new demand that is being created by the LCCs.
There has been limited cannibalization of mainline traffic so far, although this could change in the future, Shinobe said.
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