The first regular long-haul international route for ANA’s B787 aircraft will be Frankfurt in January, with Beijing also set to see the Dreamliner during December.
The carrier is set to take delivery of its first B787 next month, with the first Dreamliner passenger flights taking place between Tokyo Narita and Hong Kong on October 26 and 27. ANA will then roster the aircraft on to domestic routes from Tokyo Haneda to Okayama and Hiroshima from November 1.
But passengers based in Europe will be interested to know that the carrier will commence Dreamliner flights between Haneda and Frankfurt in January, with a new overnight service NH203 departing Tokyo at 0100, arriving in Frankfurt at 0525, before departing as NH204 at 1115, landing back in Japan at 0645 the following day.
The route will be operated as a joint venture between ANA and Lufthansa, and will initially fly three-times weekly (Monday, Thursday and Saturday), with plans to increase this to daily from February. The exact launch date in January has yet to be announced.
Ahead of this ANA will also fly the Dreamliner to Beijing from December 1, until the launch of the Frankfurt service. The aircraft will be roster onto the route “approximately once a week”, although again exact launch details and timings have yet to be announced.
ANA says that by the end of the fiscal year the Dreamliner will also have operated on domestic routes from Haneda to Itami, Yamaguchi-Ube, and Matsuyama.
Customers interested in travelling on the inaugural Dreamliner flight between Tokyo Narita and Hong Kong should check ANA’s Dreamliner microsite at ana.co.jp/787/ for details of package tours.
The carrier will also be running a business class charity auction from mid-September, with proceeds going to Conservation International, and a lottery for economy class tickets is also set to be held for members of ANA’s Mileage Club loyalty scheme from September 1.
For more information visit ana.co.jp, and for articles about the long-awaited launch of Boeing's Dreamliner aircraft, click here.
Report by Mark Caswell
