Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) is to resume flights between Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur from the third quarter of 2015 as seeks to further develop Narita International Airport as a transfer hub for international passengers flying between North America and destinations in Asia. This complements its Haneda Airport hub in Tokyo, which acts as the hub for international-domestic transfers.

The Tokyo Narita – Kuala Lumpur flight will return to the ANA network from September 1, 2015 and will be flown on a daily basis by a Boeing 787-8. It will compete directly with AirAsia X, Japan Airlines and Malaysia Airlines on the route, with indirect competition also coming from AirAsia X through its Tokyo Haneda – Kuala Lumpur link.

ANA says the new service will enable passengers to make easier connections with flights to and from North America during the evening period at Narita and it will also grow its schedules across the US and Asia to further support its transfer activities.

In the US market, from June 12, 2015 a new daily link between Tokyo Narita and Houston will be introduced, flown by a Boeing 777-300ER, while from July 17, 2015 a second daily rotation will be introduced on the Tokyo Narita – Honolulu route, both flown by Boeing 767-300ERs.

ANA will also introduce larger aircraft and switch schedules on some existing routes in order to satisfy the increased demand for travel; created by economic growth in Asia.

In Asian market, ANA will add second daily rotations on its routes between Tokyo Narita and Bangkok (from August 1, 2015) and Singapore (for June 11, 2015). It will also debut its Premium Economy offering in the Bangkok, Jakarta and Singapore markets in 2015 through new aircraft deployment, while a First Class offering will be added to Singapore.

According to ANA, these are all markets where demand from business users and for connections to and from North America is particularly high.

You can see more details on ANA’s international network changes for the year ahead in our Airline Route blog post: ‘ANA S15 International Operation Changes’.

In our analysis, below, we look in a little more detail at passenger demand on the Tokyo Narita – Kuala Lumpur market.