All Nippon Airways

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

ANA Boeing 747

All Nippon Airways (全日空 Zennikkū or 全日本空輸 Zen-nippon kūyu) is an airline headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Formerly Japan's largest domestic carrier, it is now the country's second-largest domestic and international carrier, after Japan Airlines. lt is often known by the abbreviation ANA, which is popularly used as an acronym in Japanese.

ANA's main international hub is at Narita International Airport outside Tokyo. Its main domestic hubs are at Tokyo International Airport, Osaka International Airport, Nagoya Airport, and New Chitose Airport (near Sapporo).

ANA's associate companies in Tokyo include Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) and Air Nippon, ANA's former regional airline which now handles charter flights for ANA. In 2004, ANA set up a low-cost subsidiary, Air Next, to operate flights from Fukuoka Airport starting in 2005.

ANA uses the IATA airline code NH (from its former name Nippon Helicopter) and the ICAO airline code ANA.

Contents

3.1 Japan
3.2 Asia
3.3 North America
3.4 Europe

4 Other facts of interest

History

ANA, which now ranks among the world's largest airlines, had humble beginnings, as a domestic operator. In February of 1953, helicopter service was started and soon after passenger charter flights followed. 1955 saw the beginning of a new and profitable ANA route when Osaka was added from Tokyo with an inaugural cargo flight. That same year, the Douglas DC-3 plane began flying for Japan Helicopters and Aeroplane, and in 1957, the airline changed its name to ANA. In 1958, Far Eastern Aviation, a small competitor, merged with ANA, bringing the airline's total capital to 600 million yen.

ANA Boeing 747-400 (JA8962), in Pokémon special colours

The 1960s was a period of slow but unstoppable growth for the company, when they added the Vickers Viscount to the fleet in 1960, and later Fokker F27s, in 1961. 1961 marked ANA's debut at the Tokyo Stock Exchange as well as the Osaka Security Exchange. 1963 saw another merger, this one with Fujita Airlines, raising the company's capital to 4 billion yen. In 1965, ANA introduced jet services with Boeing 727s: these were soon joined by YS-11s, and in 1969, ANA introduced Boeing 737 service.

The 1970s saw the beginning of ANA's internationalization. February 3 of 1971 in particular was a historic date for the airline, when ANA inaugurated its first international service, a charter flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. The Lockheed L-1011 was introduced in 1973, Boeing 747s in 1978, and Boeing 767s in 1983.

In 1986, ANA started regular passenger service from Tokyo to Guam. Soon after, many cities such as Frankfurt, New York, Los Angeles, London and Paris were added. ANA continued its expansion of services all over Asia, North America and Europe during the 1990's, and Airbus equipment such as the A320, A321 and A340 was added to the fleet, as was the Boeing 747-400 jet. In 1994, ANA started service to Kansai International Airport and in 1999, it joined the Star Alliance.

After the September 11 attacks of 2001, an ANA 747 flying from Dulles International Airport in Virginia, near Washington D.C. to Narita, Japan became the first plane to fly in the United States once the grounding of all planes in US territory was declared over by President George W. Bush's government.

In 2004, facing a surplus of slots due to the construction of new airports and the expansion of Haneda, ANA announced a fleet renewal plan that would replace some of its large aircraft with a greater number of smaller aircraft. [1]

Disasters

ANA's first crash occurred in 1958, when a Douglas DC-3, registration JA5045, crashed.
In 1960, another DC-3, registration JA5018, was lost.
In 1966, an ANA Boeing 727 was landing in Tokyo when it crashed into Tokyo Bay, with the loss of all passengers.
An ANA YS-11 crashed shortly afterward.
In March of 1971, a Boeing 727, registration JA8329, suffered an accident.
In 1999, a man hijacked All Nippon Airways Flight 61 and killed the pilot. He was subdued by other crew members, and nobody else on the airplane was hurt.

Fleet information

Boeing 7E7-8 in ANA livery

ANA owns a total of 167 aircraft, including:

Boeing 747-400 x23
Boeing 747SR-400 x7
Boeing 747-200B x2
Boeing 777-300 x7
Boeing 777-200 x16
Boeing 767-300 x52 (includes 1 frieghter)
Boeing 767-200 x2 (leased to SkyMark and Air Do)
Airbus 321-100 x7
Airbus 320-200 x28 (includes aircrafts jointly owned with Air Nippon)

ANA also leased a number of their aircrafts to Air Nippon:

Boeing 737-500 x16
DHC-8-400 x3
DHC-8-300 x4

ANA has five specially painted jets: three Pokémon jets (a Boeing 747-400 for international service, and a Boeing 747-400 and a Boeing 767-300 for domestic service), one Star Alliance jet, and one Woody jet in affiliation with USJ, the Universal Studios theme park in Osaka [2].

ANA became the launch customer for the new Boeing widebody, the 7E7, ordering 50 examples with an option for 50 more during April 2004. Deliveries will begin in 2008. ANA has split the order between 30 of the short-range 7E7-3 and 20 of the long haul 7E7-8 and during October 2004 announced it had selected Rolls-Royce to supply the engines. This move is part of ANA's continuing plan to become an all-Boeing airline.

Destinations

Europe

Other facts of interest

ANA is the official airline of the Tokyo Disney Resort.

Members of the Star Alliance

Future Members: Adria Airways | Blue1 | Croatia Airlines | South African Airways | TAP Air Portugal

List of Aircraft | Aircraft Manufacturers | Aircraft Engines | Aircraft Engine Manufacturers

Airlines | Air Forces | Aircraft Weapons | Missiles | Timeline of aviation

de:All Nippon Airways fr:All Nippon Airways ja:全日本空輸