ANA to Realign 26 Domestic Routes Under FY 2007 Business Plan

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Jan. 25–TOKYO — All Nippon Airways Co. on Thursday announced a business plan for fiscal 2007 featuring a realignment of 26 domestic routes to realize operations that can beat high fuel costs and ensure profitability.

Of the 26 routes which account for some 20 percent of ANA’s all domestic routes, six will be closed by stages from April 1, including Sapporo-Memambetsu, Kobe-Kagoshima and Oita-Okinawa, due to low load factors or the ratio of paid passenger seats to the total seat capacity of a flight.

The ratio is in the 40 percent range for the six routes, according to ANA.

The airline will also fly fewer flights on the Itami-New Chitose, Sendai-Hiroshima and six other routes and increase flights on eight routes including Kansai-New Chitose and Kobe-Haneda.

For international services, ANA will operate seven flights between Narita and Mumbai a week, starting April 1. The company will fly the second of its Boeing 737-700ER small aircraft with 36 business class seats on the new route, becoming the first Japanese airline to introduce a purely business class airplane.

ANA will also operate two daily flights between Narita and Guangzhou from May 1, up from one at present.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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