All Nippon Airways announces restructuring

On 27 October, All Nippon Airways announced a restructuring of its business as a result of large losses inflicted by the Corona-pandemic. The plan is a mix of reducing the number of co-workers, aircraft, deferral of deliveries of new aircraft and the creation of a new airline in the group.

Fleet-wise, ANA is planning to accelerate the phase-out of the B737-700, of which they have eight, and will phase out four of them this year. Also set for retirement are six B767s, eight B777-200s, two B777-300s and thirteen B777-300ERs. Earlier this year the airline already phased-out their final two B737-500s, which means ANA will phase-out a total of 35 aircraft in 2020.

To limit their capital expanditure, ANA has deferred the delivery of one B777-300ER and their last A380 to 2021 and also decided to postpone the arrival of their first of 20 B777-9s from 2021 to at least 2023.

As ANA expects a shift in travel patterns after COVID (less business travelers, more cost-concious private travelers), the airline is planning to launch a third brand in the Group, which currently consists of full-service carrier ANA and low-cost carrier Peach. The third brand will use the Air Japan-subsidiary and will be a lower-cost airline, placed between ANA and Peach. The new airline will be equipped with B787s, that will seat 300 passengers in two configurations. The yet unnamed brand will mainly focus on flights from Japan to destinations in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia. It's currently unknown how many B787s will be transferred from ANA to the new airline, but the idea is to commence operations on 1 April 2022.

Photo by Anton Homma