ANA Suspends London And Paris Routes

Credit: Joe Pries

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is not operating its services to London and Paris because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent airspace restrictions.

In a report issued with the release of its financial results for the 12 months ended March 31, the Japanese airline said its Tokyo Haneda (HND)-London Heathrow (LHR) and HND-Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) routes have not been operated since late March and will remain suspended because of the closure of Russia's airspace.

ANA does continue to fly from HND to Frankfurt (FRA) and from Tokyo Narita (NRT) to Brussels (BRU). For those routes, the carrier is “taking alternate flight paths to bypass Russian airspace,” ANA said.

The number of passengers carried for ANA’s fiscal year ending March 31 was just 10% of pre-pandemic levels, but “the easing of restrictions for entry into Japan [in March] has contributed to a building recovery trend,” ANA said, noting: “Demand began to recover strongly from mid-March of this year.”

ANA incurred a net loss of ¥144 billion ($1 billion) for the 12 months ended March 31.

Going forward, ANA said it “expects the impact of COVID-19 to remain significant on our business performance. However, further signs of recovery in airline demand are visible, with [border] measures in Japan lifted in March, as well as eased entry restrictions in various countries.”

Aaron Karp

Aaron Karp is a Contributing Editor to the Aviation Week Network.