Air Japan, a low-cost carrier of Japan‘s All Nippon Airways‘ (ANA), will get a second aircraft in May next year to be deployed in Southeast Asia, a top executive said on Thursday.
Air Japan will add one or two planes each year, the airline’s president Hideki Mineguchi said in Bangkok.
ANA launched the carrier last year with a focus on expanding its presence in Southeast Asian market as tourism recovers.
Before the pandemic, mainland Chinese – who largely prefer to travel abroad in tour groups – accounted for the biggest number of tourists to Japan. But since Japan eased its own pandemic border controls late last year, the number of Chinese tourists has only recovered to about 20% of 2019 levels, partly because of China’s delay in adding Japan to a list of approved nations for tour groups.
The airline will start a Bangkok-Tokyo route in February 2024 to support the Japanese’s government’s goal of attracting 30 million tourists by 2030, Air Japan said. “There is a lot of traffic between Japan and Bangkok, and we expect the market itself to continue to grow,” he said, adding Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia routes were being considered.
Japan saw a record 32 million visitors in 2019.
Arrivals in July of 2.32 million were still down 22% from the level in July 2019, according to the Japan National Tourism Organisation.
