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Ceremony held in Toulouse, France to commemorate the occasion.
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The latest addition to ANA’s fleet solidifies the airline’s partnership with Airbus.
TOULOUSE, FRANCE, 2019-Mar-26 — /Travel PR News/ — All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japan’s largest and 5-star airline for six consecutive years, has received the first of its three Airbus A380 aircraft. ANA and Airbus held a ceremony in Toulouse, France to mark the handover of the plane as well as acknowledge the importance of the airline’s relationship with Airbus. Media events are also scheduled to take place in Japan after the aircraft touches down at Narita airport.
ANA’s new Airbus A380 will enter service on May 24th, traveling between Narita and Honolulu, Hawaii. The airplane is designed to provide maximum comfort to up to 520 passengers on this popular route with its premium layout seating. The upper deck is home to eight First Class suites, 56 Business Class seats that convert to fully flat beds and 73 Premium Economy seats. The main deck will have 383 Economy Class seats, including 60 couch seats. This makes ANA the first in Japan to introduce a couch seat concept. Each couch is comprised of three or four seats and passengers are able to lie on the seats by folding up the leg rests. In addition to expanded passenger space, the aircraft offers heightened internet options as well as other advanced in-flight entertainment features.
“We will commit all three of our Airbus A380 to the Tokyo Honolulu route with the goal of introducing a new level of luxury service to our passengers flying ANA on the number one resort route for Japanese travelers,” said Shinya Katanozka, President and CEO of ANA HOLDINGS INC. “We believe the A380 will become a game changer for ANA and will enable us to increase our market share by doubling the number of seats connecting Honolulu and Tokyo by 2020. The FLYING HONU is designed to offer unprecedented comfort and convenience and a world of new possibilities to ANA passengers, something that would not have been possible without the combined efforts of the Airbus and Rolls-Royce teams working closely with the dedicated professionals at ANA.”
“Airbus is proud to deliver this beautiful and iconic aircraft to ANA. Offering unrivalled levels of passenger comfort, the A380 will enable ANA to increase its capacity on the busy route to Hawaii with maximum efficiency,” said Airbus CEO Thomas Enders. “We are confident that the aircraft will be highly successful in service with ANA and are committed to providing full support to the airline all along the way.”
ANA’s first Airbus A380 sports bold Hawaiian Sky Blue Flying Honu-inspired livery. The second A380 plane will boast Hawaiian Ocean Emerald Green livery and is expected to roll out of the paint shop on March 25, 2019.
About ANA
Following the “Inspiration of Japan” high quality of service, ANA has been awarded the respected 5-Star rating every year since 2013 from SKYTRAX. ANA is the only Japanese airline to win this prestigious designation six years in a row. Additionally, ANA has been recognized by Air Transport World as “Airline of the Year” three times in the past 10 years – 2007, 2013 and 2018, becoming one of the few airlines winning this prestigious award for multiple times.
ANA was founded in 1952 with two helicopters and has become the largest airline in Japan, as well as one of the most significant airlines in Asia, operating 80 international routes and 118 domestic routes. ANA offers a unique dual hub model which enables passengers to travel to Tokyo and connect through the two airports in the metropolitan Tokyo, NARITA and HANEDA, to various destinations throughout Japan, and also offers same day connections between various North American, Asian and Chinese cities.
ANA has been a member of Star Alliance since 1999 and has joint venture partnerships with United Airlines, Lufthansa German Airlines, Swiss International Airlines and Austrian Airlines.
Besides the full service and award winner carrier ANA, the ANA Group has two LCCs as consolidated subsidiaries, Vanilla Air Inc. and Peach Aviation Limited. The ANA Group carried 53.8 million passengers in FY2017, has approximately 39,000 employees and a fleet of 260 aircraft. ANA is a proud launch customer and the biggest operator of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
For more information, please refer to the following link.
https://www.ana.co.jp/group/en/
Contact:
ANA Corporate Communications
TEL +81-3-6735-1111
publicrelations@ana.co.jp
Source: ANA Group