All Nippon Airways SWOT: a secure base with room for improvement, but no room for complacency

All Nippon Airways has become both Japan's largest domestic and, more recently, international carrier. Its home is a domestic market with affinity for Japanese carriers - and increasingly ANA, not rival JAL - that translates to a yield premium. ANA is planning international and long-haul growth to reduce its reliance on the domestic market. In 2015 the once-exclusively domestic ANA expects for the first time in its history to have more international than domestic capacity.

But ANA is in a market filled with potential growth, has the highest cost base of major Asian carriers, and a smaller Asian network than its peers. While ANA is delivering returns, it is to a degree relatively inefficient, with low aircraft utilisation and domestic load factors around 60%. While these attributes provide the market with the reliability and rewards it prefers, it also means that should the market become more complex and require change, ANA has options to restructure. This is in contrast with global peers that have few avenues left to pursue.

An international pivot comes with the reality that ANA has limited experience with other markets, having catered largely to outbound Japan. While this has meant some mistakes along the way, ANA has been sufficiently innovative to embark on a strategy involving international acquisitions, including a proposed small investment in Myanmar's Asian Wings, a low risk venture now considered doubtful.