TOKYO - ANA Holdings on Friday launched its third airline brand, AirJapan, a medium-haul low-cost carrier targeting the growing number of tourists from other Asian countries including Thailand.
The parent of All Nippon Airways said AirJapan would operate six round-trip flights per week between Narita airport near Tokyo and Bangkok using Boeing 787-8 aircraft. The first flight departed on Friday afternoon.
The aircraft in an all-economy layout offers the same legroom as full-service carrier flights, according to ANA.
“The seats are the brand’s biggest appeal. We hope our customers enjoy comfortable flights to Bangkok,” AirJapan president Hideki Mineguchi said at a ceremony at Narita airport.
The new airline is planning to start flights between Narita and Incheon airport near Seoul on Feb 22 and between the Japanese airport and Singapore on April 26.
One-way tickets to Bangkok start at ¥15,500 yen (3,725 baht), with tickets to Incheon and Singapore expected to start at around ¥8,000 and ¥17,500, respectively.
In-flight meals, available for a fee, include popular Japanese dishes, such as sushi and oyakodon chicken and egg rice bowls.
Shinobu Yada, one of the passengers aboard the first flight, said she had been looking forward to taking AirJapan to Thailand.
“I’m excited about the prospect of traveling now that the pandemic is over,” she said. “And it’s really cheap and definitely worth flying.”
Maitri Tiyaratanakul, a traveller from Thailand, said he was “satisfied” with the airfare. “It’s cheaper than some (other) airlines,” he said.
Japan has seen inbound tourism boom again after the removal last year of border control measures taken during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The number of foreign visitors to the country grew more than sixfold to 25.1 million in 2023 from a year earlier, with recent monthly data showing a return to levels seen before the coronavirus outbreak.
