All Nippon Airways (ANA) is resuming Airbus A380 flights between Japan and Hawaii beginning July 1 in response to rising international travel demand, while frequencies between Tokyo and Honolulu are also being expanded.
The Star Alliance member has a fleet of three A380s that it used solely on services between Tokyo Narita (NRT) and Honolulu (HNL) prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.
From May 28, the airline plans to increase the number of flights between Tokyo Haneda (HND) and Honolulu to 4X-weekly with the addition of a Saturday service. From July 1, A380 service will then return to the Tokyo Narita-Honolulu route, operating twice a week, while HND-HNL will rise to 5X-weekly.
The expansion sees the carrier will resume daily operations between Tokyo and Honolulu, providing about 4,540 two-way seats between the destinations.
“ANA will continue to monitor local restrictions and quarantine guidelines as well as demand trends and travel viability as it decides on the frequency of flights and when to resume certain routes,” the Japanese carrier said in a statement.
Before the pandemic, Honolulu was one of ANA’s largest international markets, with the airline offering 2X-daily flights from NRT using A380s and 777-300ERs, as well as 1X-daily service from Haneda on board 787-9s.
Data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser shows that ANA had a 21.4% capacity share of seats between Japan and Hawaii during January 2020, behind Japan Airlines at 26.4% and Hawaiian Airlines at 23.2%.
ANA has also confirmed that flights from Haneda to London Heathrow (LHR) will return on June 1. Operations were suspended in March—along with its Haneda-Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) route—because of the closure of Russia's airspace. However, ANA now plans to operate nonstop flights to London three times per week on the northern polar route.
The flight time on the westbound flights will be shortened compared to taking the central Asia route and will not require refueling at transit points. For flights from Haneda to London, the northern polar route reduces flight time by approximately 60-90 min. compared to the central Asia route.
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