By Will Lee
All Nippon Airways Introduces Pikachu Jet
As Covid-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions worldwide — and most recently in Asia — continue to subside, airlines across the globe have made every effort to lure customers to return to the skies. Looking to a potentially younger traveler base, All Nippon Airways is becoming the fifth airline to cooperate with Pokemon Company to join the “Pokemon Air Adventure.” One of its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners — registration JA894 — will now Pikachu and other recognizable icons on the fuselage.
All Nippon Airways, Japan’s largest airline, have followed in Singapore’s Scoot, Taiwan’s China Airlines, South Korea’s T’way Air and Japan’s Skymarks Airlines’ footstep to launch “Pikachu Jet NH.”
The latest Pikachu aircraft could carry 246 passengers with two classes configuration and expected to enter into the service on Jun 4, operating from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to multiple cities, such as Bangkok, Singapore, Vancouver, Canada, Honolulu, U.S., Sydney, Manila, Philippine, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Delhi, Jakarta, Indonesia.
All Nippon will go further in offering Pokemon-related content such as Pokemon Kids TV and Poketoon on all ANA international and domestic flights in June and July respectively. In addition, some original souvenirs to be distributed to passengers as well.
All Nippon Airways’ aircraft has a history of featuring remarkable liveries before Covid, such as “Flying Honu” and Star Wars.
Pokemon launched the scheme before the lifting of travel restrictions with the aim of encouraging the people to explore the world again. Meanwhile, the aviation and travel sectors were left behind during the pandemic, the video game software giant was determined to support the industries by launching Pokemon Air Adventure.
“Pokemon would like to add to the celebration and offer you many days of tremendous excitement. We’d also like to lend a hand to the strongly affected airline and travel industries. With that in mind, we have to decide to launch ‘Pokemon Air Adventures,’” the Japanese gaming company said on its website.
The airlines participating “Pokemon Air Adventure” would provide a range of Pokemon experience to passengers. In Japanese city of Naha, Skymarks Airlines has a special design for the check-in kiosks, providing the Pikachu boarding pass and baggage tags to the passengers. China Airlines also provide a number of Pokemon theme products, ranging from boarding pass to mixed snacks.
However, All Nippon Airways and Pikachu haven’t revealed the further details about the other Pikachu products and the cabin design at the moment.
Earlier, All Nippon Airways has unveiled its corporate strategy for the years spanning 2023-2025. It came after the report of the group’s first profit since 2019. The group is aiming to expand market share and profit through the development of three brands: All Nippon Airways; Peach — the low-cost carrier — and AirJapan, which the parent company is set to launch in February 2024.
AirJapan hasn’t announced the routes and destinations thus far, but the new carrier is expected to operate within Asia and offer affordable ticket prices to compete with no-frills airlines. Earlier, the carrier unveiled its seats with a 32-inch seat peach and crew uniform
