ANA increases cargo capacity using passenger cabin to carry vital medical supplies

• First Japanese airline to transport cargo in the passenger cabin.
• Using passenger seats and overhead compartments mean about 1.4 times* more cargo capacity to transport medical supplies.

Tokyo, Japan, 2020-May-02 — /Travel PR News/ — All Nippon Airways (ANA) announced it is the first Japanese airline to carry vital medical supplies (i.e. masks, hazmat suits and test kits) as cargo, on its passenger seats and overhead compartments. This move by ANA increases cargo capacity, allowing the airline to transport approximately 1.4 times more cargo than when only using the conventional cargo compartments.

Due to the expansion of entry restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), passenger flights have been largely suspended or reduced worldwide, resulting in limited space for air cargo. To meet the increased demand for transportation of vital medical supplies, ANA began transporting masks and other items using the baggage storage space above the seats on the Shanghai to Haneda flights starting April 10th. Moving forward, ANA has also begun usage of its passenger seats as cargo space on this route since April 22, and is considering expanding this on other existing routes as well. Other efforts include the operation of charter flights with the freighters. ANA had 86 flights in March, and are expecting 297 flights in April.

“ANA is honored to help relief efforts in Japan and help deliver these vital medical supplies,” said Toshiaki Toyama, President of ANA CARGO INC. and Executive Vice President of ANA. “We are excited to use ANA Group’s resources in a creative way to deliver goods to people in need.”

As the world faces these unprecedented times, ANA will continue to take on new challenges to secure space for air cargo and emergency transportation needs to help address the demand for these medical supplies.

• *Note: Total of cargo capacity, passenger seat and overhead compartment load compared to the Boeing 787-9 cargo load

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 eight 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 58 international routes and 117 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.

In addition to the full service and award-winning record of ANA, the ANA Group’s subsidiary Peach Aviation Limited is the leading LCC in Japan, and has expanded following the integration of Vanilla Air Inc. in late 2019. The ANA Group carried 54.4 million passengers in FY2018, has approximately 43,000 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

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