TOKYO: All Nippon Airways said Tuesday that it will halve its international flight services in fiscal 2021, which starts in April, from the initially planned levels for fiscal 2020.

The core unit of ANA Holdings Inc., which has been forced to scale down its flight services due to entry restrictions amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, will fully or partially cancel flights on 19 international routes under its summer timetable between late March and the end of October.

The 19 routes include those between Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, and New York, and between Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, and Hong Kong.

The major Japanese airline will put on hold plans to open new routes connecting Tokyo International Airport at Haneda with the cities of Milan, Istanbul, Moscow and Stockholm.

As a result, the size of the airline’s international flight services in terms of the number of seats offered and flight distances will be halved in fiscal 2021. The service plan was drawn up based on the assumption that passenger demand on international routes would fall to 40 pct of pre-pandemic levels.

The airline plans to flexibly adjust the number of flights depending on actual demand.

Aiming to curb operational costs and improve profitability, the airline plans to increase the use of small, environmentally friendly aircraft mainly on long-distance routes.

JIJI Press