The ANA Group has unveiled productdetails of its new AirJapan brand, a low-cost subsidiary brand. This is part of ANA Holding’s business transformation, first announced back in October 2020. Back then, ANA indicated plans to launch a new brand to target demand for “low-cost, medium-distance flights to destinations in Southeast Asia and Oceania”. The plan was to utilise the Air Japan subsidiary as the operating entity for this new brand. The AirJapan brand was officially announced back in March 2022.
That plan has now fully come to reality, as ANA has released product details for the rather uncreatively named “AirJApan”. The new brand will operate 787-8s in a single class configuration. AirJapan expects to commence operations in February 2024, starting with routes to Southeast Asia. The new AirJapan brand’s website can be found here: https://www.flyairjapan.com/en.
AirJapan vs Air Japan
For anyone who has flown a flight between Southeast Asia to Japan on ANA’s 787s, the name “Air Japan” might ring a bell. The Air Japan entity operates these flights on behalf of ANA. There’s no real difference product and service wise on an Air Japan flight compared to an ANA flight, just that the crew are Air Japan employees. Confusingly for many, Changi Airport’s flight information tends to display the Air Japan “NQ” IATA 2-letter code, rather than ANA’s “NH” code. This despite no one actually ever buying a ticket from Air Japan. Anyway for all intents and purposes, currently taking an Air Japan flight is no different from a ‘regular’ ANA flight. Air Japan essentially serves a subsidiary operating entity, rather than a brand in its own right.
With AirJapan, that’s a very different proposition. As mentioned in ANA’s transformation plans, the operating entity for the new AirJapan brand will be Air Japan Co. Ltd. Therefore, Air Japan is the corporate entity behind the AirJapan brand. The AirJapan brand will be focused on the low-cost market in Southeast Asia, and possibly Oceania if their October 2020 transformation plan is still valid.
To further muddy the waters, Air Japan Co. Ltd. will continue to operate flights on behalf of ANA. Considering the overlap of ANA-marketed, Air Japan-operated routes and AirJapan’s proposed focus, mostly being Southeast Asia, I can see the potential for even greater confusion. The marketing aspect will be distinct, but I can imagine the potential for confusion when looking at Changi Airport’s flight information displays for example.
Am I the only who thinks ANA should have come up with dissimilar, more creative name for their new low-cost brand?
AirJapan details
AirJapan expects to launch flights in February 2024 to Southeast Asia. To be honest, considering this new brand has been in the pipeline for over 2 years, and is utilising an existing corporate entity, a first flight nearly 12 months away still sounds slow.
The new brand comes with the concept of “Fly Thoughtful”. According to the President of AirJapan, AirJapan is “dedicated to the passion of our passenger’s pursuits, which inspires us to create inflight products and services to foster the innovative spirit of those flying with us”. To be honest, that last part about fostering the innovative spirit of passengers sound weird. Maybe it’s something that sounds better in Japanese. Regardless, the “Fly Thoughtful” concept is supposed to underpin the product and services offerings.
AirJapan seating
AirJapan’s fleet will consist of 787-8s, in a single-class configuration. There will be 324 seats, with 32-inch pitch. That’s pretty generous for a LCC. ANA’s current international fleet have up to 34in, so 32in is not too drastic a reduction. That’s an extra inch on ZIPAIR – JAL’s widebody low-cost subsidiary that also operates 787-8s – and Scoot. Considering that’s Scoot’s 787-8s pack in between 329 to 335 passengers depending on aircraft configuration (bunk or no bunk), AirJapan’s 324 seats doesn’t too dense at all. Especially when factoring in that Scoot has Scootplus and extra legroom seats.
The seats will be made from premium Japanese faux leather. The material is supposed to be durable, lightweight and soft. I get that faux leather is easier to maintain than fabric and cheaper than genuine leather. I’m not convinced I’d want to sit in a faux leather sit for a 7 or 8-hour flight. I hope the material is breathable, which some faux leather aren’t. The seats themselves are the Z110i manufactured by Safran and designed by Acumen Design Associates, a British firm known for projects such as Etihad’s A380 First class, Jetblue’s new Mint and ANA’s ‘The Room’ Business class, the latter two of which I’ve tried. (See my review of Jetblue’s Mint Suite here: Review: Jetblue A321neo Mint Suite (LAX-JFK)).
The airline also promises a deep recline. No specifics is mentioned, but the photos look like a bog-standard economy class recline.
Similar to other LCCs, AirJapan won’t offer seatback inflight entertainment. Seats will be equipped with both USB-A and USB-C ports to keep personal devices charged. There’s no word yet if inflight WiFi or some form of streaming entertainment will be offered.
Other product and service details
Furthering the “Fly Thoughtful” philosophy, the cabin crew uniforms provides flexibility for crew to vary their uniforms according to their own preference. The uniforms are touted as gender-neutral with a borderless design. Cabin crew will be able to mix-and-match the tops and bottoms of the uniform, allowing for variation in coordination.
AirJapan is certainly taking their boarding music seriously. The music was composed in collaboration with Tokyo University and features traditional Japanese instruments such as the shakuhachi (an end-blown flute made of bamboo) and koto (a half-tube zither). You can listen to the boarding music in this video:
Set meals with available for pre-order, along with various other meals and snacks that can be purchased inflight. AirJapan hasn’t released details of the meals that will be available for purchase, but promises they will deliver an authentic taste of Japan.
My thoughts on AirJapan
Technically, ANA states AirJapan is neither a full service nor low-cost carrier, rather it is an airline that is “thoughtful to all”. Hence also their product concept of “Fly Thoughtful”. ANA can market it how they want, but it’s clearly an LCC. ANA is clearly going for a modern, less-traditional, yet recognisably Japanese experience with this new brand. However, I still have misgivings about the branding. The whole press release sounds like an attempt to appeal to the younger generation, particularly the more liberal-leaning sort. Not to get into politics, but some aspects of the write-up come off weird to me.
With the name, they’ve basically just taken the space out of the company’s name. I don’t feel it’s the right choice, in fact it may create some confusion. Booking an ANA flight and seeing “operated by Air Japan” already confuses some passengers, I don’t think adding an “AirJapan” into the market will help.
AirJapan will be joining other widebody operators flying between Japan and Southeast Asia, such as the Scoot, ZIPAIR and the AirAsia group. Unlike these competitors however, AirJapan will not have a “premium” product, instead opting for a one-class configuration. A one-class configuration is actually unusual for a widebody LCC operation. I’m honestly surprised AirJapan has gone this route, and I can’t but wonder if they might have missed something here. Their 2020 plan for the new brand that has become AirJapan was for a two-class configuration, so I’m curious what made them decide to deviate from that. I’m actually quite fond of LCC premium cabin offerings, which I find tend to offer a comfortable and value for money proposition.
The lack of such an option on AirJapan means I’m unlikely to be a customer anytime soon, but I’m sure they’ll have plenty of customers whose travel preferences differ from mine. After all, people love going to Japan.
Conclusion
The ANA Group has unveiled product details of its new AirJapan brand, a low-cost subsidiary in all but name. The new brand will be operated, confusingly, by the existing Air Japan corporate entity. The new airline will operate 787-8s in a one-class configuration with 324 seats. The first flight is expected to take off in February 2024, to a yet-to-be-announced destination in Southeast Asia
Featured image: AirJapan