The "worst is over" with premium demand recovering: ANA CEO

All Nippon Airways President and CEO, Shinichiro Ito, stated the "worst is over", with premium demand showing signs of "recovery" (Bloomberg, 12-Apr-2010). He added that the carrier is "seriously considering" establishing an LCC subsidiary for its growth strategy in Asia. He also commented that US-Japan skies and codeshare possibility is "an opportunity to enhance our competitiveness".

ANA: "We are seriously considering it. But do we have a low-cost airport that is open 24 hours so we can raise the flight frequency of planes in Japan? No. A low-cost carrier business is only possible if there are no sales staff, tickets are sold only online, and there are no free in-flight services. I wonder if we could do this in Japan. There is probably demand," Shinichiro Ito, President and CEO. Source: Bloomberg, 12-Apr-2010.

ANA: "Demand for business trips is recovering. In our case, the ratio of business travelers in the electronics industry is high. Recovery in demand from them is notable. … The worst is over. It is vital how we can transform the growth in customer numbers to growth in income per customer in terms of our marketing strategy and yield management...The reality is that we are not in a situation where revenue from the domestic flight business will significantly grow. The growth area is the international flight business. And we should redefine how we think about some regional flights ... for example, I wonder if Tokyo-Shanghai or Tokyo-Seoul flights are really international. There is no big difference in flight time between those flights and some domestic ones. We want to remove such a wall," Shinichiro Ito, President and CEO. Source: Bloomberg, 12-Apr-2010.