First ANA flight departs from Brussels to Tokyo

The first flight operated by Japanese airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) between Brussels Airport and Tokyo’s Narita International Airport took off on Sunday.

The new service between Japan and Belgium represents the airline’s sixth European destination and will play an important role in ANA’s strategy of expanding its international presence and brand awareness in Europe.

 FlyUs as ANA’s Cargo general sales agent is responsible for both sales and operations at the new online station and has already worked for ANA in an offline capacity since 2006.

Operating with a Boeing 787-8 FlyUs says it believes they can expect to put approximately seven pallets of freight on each flight. On this route, ANA are targeting pharmaceutical traffic using ANA’s PrioCool and PrioPharma services.

ANA Cargo’s director global marketing and sales/alliance, Yutaka Terao says:  “Time and temperature sensitive products form a key part of all ANA’s long-haul, wide body routes and through a long-standing master lease agreement (MLA) with Envirotainer the airline has an excellent reputation for handling this kind of traffic. We are confident  FlyUs can add to our entire product range moving from Benelux on the Brussels-Narita route”.

A launch event in Brussels before the first flight east on 25 October showcased a range of active and passive services to forwarders from the Benelux markets. This was followed by a presentation to general forwarders on the scope of ANA’s network and services.

The first flight was fully booked and comprised not only pharma shipments, but general cargo and Belgian chocolate too.

A dedicated team of five has been set up by  FlyUs to handle the ANA business as the team expects to receive shipments not only destined for Tokyo but for onward destinations such as Nagoya and Osaka but also its air and road feeder destinations within the ANA Japanese domestic network.

“In addition to that we are anticipating traffic for another 23 potential destinations in China and South East Asia as from December, ANA will fly on to Sydney which we believe will also be an important destination ex-Brussels,” concludes Terao.