On Wednesday, All Nippon Airways (ANA) celebrated seven years of flying between Sydney and Tokyo Haneda at a big event held at Sydney Airport. But why all the fuss about a seventh anniversary?
In Japan, a child’s seventh birthday (as well as their third and fifth birthdays) is a particularly auspicious occasion and is marked with a special celebration on 15 November in what’s called the Shichi-Go-San (7-5-3) Festival. Plus, later this month the airline will also celebrate 70 years of flying. So All Nippon Airways, Japan’s largest airline, thought it apt to mark both events with a party. Because who doesn’t love a party?
Speaking at the reception, ANA managing director Australia and Oceania region Maki Matsuzaki took guests on a quick journey through the airline’s last seven years, from its Sydney debut (or technically, return after a 16-year absence) to its comeback post-Covid-19.
In that time, the carrier also commenced flights to Perth, signed a codeshare agreement with Virgin Australia, received NTIA nominations, and remained the only airline directly linking Australia with Japan during the pandemic.
Maki also looked towards the future, using crowds of passengers at the airport to illustrate that “the market was recovering very quickly”.
Just in from Singapore, ANA senior vice president Asia and Oceania, Shinya Kanda, highlighted how the airline remained busy during the pandemic, while apologising for not having more affordable flights since.
Twice-daily Sydney flights on the cards again?
But in potentially good news for Japan-bound travellers, he added ANA was thinking about increasing capacity “soon”. Perhaps its plan to fly twice daily out of Sydney, which had been set for a March 2020 start but shelved during Covid-19, may yet materialise.
Coincidentally, Kanda pointed out that the seventh birthday celebration was also taking place on 7 December.
In another presentation, attendees were introduced to ANA GranWhale, a virtual “travel entertainment space” the airline hopes will inform and inspire prospective travellers to Japan.
Among the guests at the party, which took place at Sydney Airport’s Kingsford Smith Suite, were Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO), Visit Tokyo, Visit Okinawa, Tourism Australia, Virgin Australia, Sydney Airport representatives, and a large number of travel wholesalers and travel advisors. Celebrity chef Adam Liaw, who has created some of the airline’s business-class menus, was also on hand for the occasion.
For more information, visit www.ana.co.jp
