Japan’s All Nippon Airways on Wednesday confirmed it would double its flight frequency between Tokyo Narita and Los Angeles International airports to 14 a week as part of a wide-ranging adjustment to its schedules for the second half of its 2017 fiscal year. Combined with existing flights from Tokyo Haneda, the change means ANA will fly three round trips per day between the Japanese capital and Los Angeles effective October 29.
Several other changes include adjustments to Haneda-Hong Kong, which on the same day will see an increase from nine round trips per week to between 12 and 14. Meanwhile, Narita-Chengdu will drop from seven per week to four.
ANA also plans to adjust equipment type on several international routes, including on Haneda-Kuala Lumpur, Haneda-Vancouver and Haneda-Delhi, all of which will see the addition of Boeing 787-8s on seven-times-weekly services now flown solely with 787-9s. Meanwhile, Narita-Ho Chi Minh City will see 767-300ERs replace some of its 787-8 service, as will Narita-Beijing. Narita-Singapore, which now uses 777-300ERs on certain services, will go exclusively to 787-9s.
On its domestic schedule, ANA resumes Hiroshima-Sapporo with a single round trip a day until at least March 24, while the busier Haneda-Hiroshima increases from nine to 10 round trips daily. Sapporo-Okinawa doubles in frequency starting February 9 from one to two round trips a day, and temporary increases to Haneda-Ishigaki (two round trips a day) and Haneda-Okinawa (12 round trips a day) continue until at least March 24.
Route suspensions affect Nagoya Chubu-Asahikawa, which loses its single flight a day between November 27 and December 21, and Nagoya Chubu-Memanbetsu, which loses its once daily service from January 10 through January 25. Reduced frequency on Kansai-Sapporo from four to three round trips per day starts on October 29, while other reductions starting on that same day will see a cut from six to two round trips a day on Fukuoka-Miyazaki and from two to one on Fukuoka-Fukue. Fukuoka-Okinawa will also see a slight drop in frequency, from eight to nine daily round trips to eight between November 27 to December 21 and from January 9 to March 15. Finally, service out of Okinawa to Ishigaki and Miyako decreases slightly from November 27 to February 8, when frequencies drop by as much as a flight a day, depending on the day of the week.
Separately, new cargo services will see the addition of Narita-Bangkok, Tianjin-Narita and Shanghai Pudong-Kansai, each of which will start with a single flight a week on October 29. ANA also plans to double frequency on Narita-Qingdao, from three to six flights a week. More frequency increases involve Kansai-Shanghai Pudong, Xiamen-Narita and Guangzhou-Narita, each of which will see the addition of one more flight per week.
However, suspension of Saturday late-night flights will see a reduction in frequencies on 13 separate routes, while supply-and-demand rebalancing results in a frequency drop on Narita-Xiamen from seven to five flights a week and a complete suspension of three other routes between Japan and China.