As part of their summer schedule for 2016, Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) will be launching flights from Tokyo’s Narita International Airport to Phnom Penh. The route will begin on September 1, 2016 and will be the only direct air service between Japan and Cambodia. It will be flown on a daily basis using a Boeing 787-8 configured with 42 Business Class and 198 Economy seats.
This latest growth adds to a significant focus on its international activities in 2015. Daily services from Narita and Haneda airports to Houston, Kuala Lumpur, Brussels and Sydney were launched within the last 12 months, in order to meet the growing demand at Narita for international transfers between North America and Asia, and at Haneda for international-domestic connections.
The new route from Narita to Phnom Penh will help to meet growing interest in the Cambodian market, as the country enjoys explosive economic growth. It has also seen improvements in labour and trade freedom. This route will help to further improve growth and trade within the Asia-Pacific region, as well as tourism which is a sector Cambodia heavily relies on.
This will be the first regular flight between Japan and Cambodia in more than ten years since Royal Khymer Airlines offered a four times weekly link between Osaka and Siem Reap, which ended in the first quarter of 2006. Asia Atlantic Airlines and Myanmar Airways International also offered services in 2014 on the Tokyo Narita – Phnom Penh and Osaka – Phnom Penh routes, respectively but these were only on a limited schedule basis.
Japan has also experienced improvements in labour, business and trade freedom. In the Asia-Pacific region, Japan is ranked sixth out of 41 countries in total. ANA has already outlined plans to launch a daily service to Wuhan, China from April 28, 2016 using a two-class, 214-seat Boeing 767-300 and will serve growing business travel demand as Japanese companies advance their presence in the region, and will also serve the demand for Chinese tourists travelling to Japan.
Asia remains ANA’s biggest market. The number of international passengers for Asia in November 2015 reached 414,013 – almost three times more than North America at 158,721 and over six times more than Europe with 64,962 passengers.
Among other schedule changes for summer 2016 the carrier will increase in the frequency of the Narita – Chengdu route from four to seven times weekly, following a winter reduction and introduce 787-8s on route from Narita to Manila and Mumbai and from Haneda to Honolulu and Shanghai.
ANA also has plans to start introducing further new Boeing 787-9s into its system within the first half of the year, primarily on Asian routes. The aircraft will be based at its Haneda International Airport base in Central Tokyo and will be deployed on flights to Hanoi, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vancouver.
In domestic skies, ANA is also introducing daily flights between Haneda and Miyako and between Iwakuni and Okinawa from March 27, 2016.
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