A low-cost carrier to be set up by All Nippon Airways at the end of this year may charge only around 5,000 yen to fly between Kansai airport in Osaka and Narita airport east of Tokyo. The new airline, which will start operations in the fall of 2011 under a brand other than ANA, may also offer Kansai-Fukuoka and Kansai-Naha services for roughly 5,000 yen and 8,000 yen.
The prospective 5,000 yen airfare between Kansai and Narita compares with the 14,050 yen charged by JR Tokai for the Nozomi shinkansen service between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka, as the airline aims to win customers away from railway and bus operators.
The new firm will also offer deep discounts on airfares for international flights — mainly those to Asian countries from Kansai — as it intends to take on competition from foreign budget airlines as well amid an increase in the number of landing slots at Haneda and Narita airports.
While the new company’s domestic services, which will also include the Kansai-Hokkaido route, are expected to start in the fall of 2011, its international services will come later, however.
Other candidate destinations of its domestic services include Sendai, Niigata, Nagasaki and Kagoshima.
The low-cost carrier will hire foreigners as pilots and flight attendants. Using fuel-efficient small and midsize airplanes, its in-flight services will be simplified.
It will also invite foreign air carriers and investment funds and Japanese firms from outside the aviation business to invest in the new subsidiary
The pictures used here is the of Star Flyer, another ANA subsidiary. You can find a bit more about Star Flyer here.
