ANA pushes back return of Perth-Tokyo flights
West Australians bound for Japan will still need to make a kangaroo hop via the eastern states.
By David Flynn, January 17 2023
Although signs were pointing to an imminent return of ANA flights between Perth and Narita, it seems travellers will have to wait a while longer yet, with the west coast capital a notable omission from the Star Alliance member’s forthcoming Northern Summer schedule.
Instead, the airline says it intends to restart the once-popular connection in its Northern Winter schedule, which takes effect at the end of October.
The Perth-Tokyo route, which the Virgin Australia partner launched in September 2019, has been on ice since the onset of the worldwide pandemic in March 2020.
ANA's Boeing 787 Dreamliner business class.
December 2022 saw ANA planning to activate new codeshare routes to and from Perth with Virgin Australia, effective from March 26, fuelling speculation that ANA’s return to Perth was mere months away; however, those plans have since been withdrawn and put on ice.
For now, the sole option for Australians looking to climb aboard ANA is its 10-times weekly service from Sydney to Tokyo-Haneda Airport, flying onboard its Boeing 787.
ANA's Boeing 787 Dreamliner business class.
ANA’s previous Perth-Tokyo service flew an overnight schedule on the northbound leg, departing Perth at 9:45pm to reach Tokyo’s Narita airport at 8:25am the following day.
This meant the Tokyo-Perth leg was a daytime service, leaving Tokyo at 11:15am to land in Perth some 10 hours later at 8:15pm.
ANA previously relied on its workhorse Boeing 787 for the route, with lie-flat business class seats ahead of a small premium economy cabin.
ANA's flagship The Room business class is exclusive to its Boeing 777-300ER jets.
Several of ANA’s longest international routes, such as those to London and New York, feature the flagship Boeing 777-300ER with the airline’s highly-regarded Qsuite-style The Room business class, crowded by an even-larger first class offering dubbed The Suite.
ANA's flagship The Suite first class is exclusive to its Boeing 777-300ER jets.
ANA is keen to continue developing its relationship with Virgin Australia, which it describes as having “the mutual goal of both airlines serving as the bridge between Australia and Japan with the highest levels of customer service and offering unique customer experiences in the two countries.”
This is expected to include reciprocal status benefits ranging from earning Velocity Points and status credits on selected ANA flights to redeeming Velocity Points on ANA flights, and enjoying status-based perks such as priority check-in, boarding and baggage handling for Velocity Golds and Platinum members, along with access to ANA’s business class airport lounges.
A likely launchpad for this will be the start of Virgin Australia’s new daily flights between Cairns and Tokyo from June 28.
Additional reporting by Chris Ashton
07 Feb 2018
Total posts 19
Seeing that Qantas ambitions to fly Jakarta from Perth have been stymied maybe Qantas has a plane up it sleeve for this route, that would be great.
17 Nov 2016
Total posts 15
NH have loaded the below into the GDS daily from 26 Mar but they are not for sale yet.
NH882 PER 2145/NRT 0825+1
NH881 NRT 1110/PER 2015
13 Jan 2023
Total posts 1
what's the word on when they will open up bookings?
18 Apr 2019
Total posts 6
I flew the ANA Perth Tokyo flight return in business just before COVID hit, and it was a good offering. Good food, good service, and eveything runs on time, unlike a certain other local airline of recent times... (in my experience anyway)
I asked Alan Joyce about the possibility of a Perth - Japan route at a P1 event a few months ago and he told me maybe when the 321XLRs appear... 321XLR range is about 8300km, Perth to Tokyo is 7900km...
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
06 Sep 2012
Total posts 224
9-10 hours on a narrowbody? Yikes no thanks, I'll stick with a widebody service
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
22 Nov 2019
Total posts 77
Why ANA do not have three times weekly ex Melbourne and instead let JAL's awfully cramped 787 J class and Joyce's old A330s chariots grab all the business is beyond me.
Etihad - Etihad Guest
10 Apr 2019
Total posts 12
JAL business seats are 4” wider than ANA so I wouldn’t exactly say they’re “awfully cramped”
Etihad - Etihad Guest
10 Apr 2019
Total posts 12
JAL’s “awfully cramped” Business seats are 4” wider than ANAs Business and QFs are 2” wider so that’s a weird point to make. If capacity and profit was there, they would be flying.
01 Aug 2020
Total posts 10
I'm already booked on the 2nd HND<->SYD flight in Feb.. surprised the restart isn't mentioned here (as confirmed)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
06 Oct 2016
Total posts 156
I wish they would fly to MEL, an additional Star Alliance would be very welcome
I suppose with NTT contracted to JAL they know they will miss out on a good number premium seats
Thai Airways International - Royal Orchid Plus
15 Jan 2013
Total posts 452
A great schedule but would it work on the way over for Adelaide people going to Japan over but coming home they fly through Sydney.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer P1
23 Aug 2014
Total posts 115
Disappointed
Was looking forward to using this flight to connect to their new F product again (extraordinary) from Japan to Europe
The weak link is the sub-standard F lounge in Japan
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
26 May 2014
Total posts 466
The updated heading says: "West Australians bound for Japan will still need to make a kangaroo hop via the eastern states." Perhaps it should say "..still need to make two hops"
We leave Perth for Japan next week and will fly Qantas to Singapore and connect with JAL to Tokyo. Singapore Airlines also offer very good connecting flights with options to land in Osaka, Narita or Haneda. We have made several trips with Singapore Airlines, but for this trip they were significantly more expensive than Qantas/JAL. Pre-covid we have flown Singapore Airline and Cathay Pacific. There are, or were, Jetstar connections via the east that I have heard of people using, but they are generally not cheaper and the experience is inferior (polite version).
As an aside, I also found that JAL looks after One World Gold FF better than Qantas does, so I have booked my Qantas/JAL flights on a JAL ticket.
25 May 2020
Total posts 4
Why would I fly via the East Coast, when I can get on any of Singapore Airlines' Perth to Singapore flights, have a quick 1 or 2 hour stop in Singapore, then fly on to Tokyo?
25 May 2020
Total posts 4
For less than $1300, I might add (that's in March this year).
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
09 Jun 2016
Total posts 3
Really dissapointing ANA wont service Melbourne. My wife and I are regular travelers to Japan to visit family and we will not use Qantas for the simple fact there to us reliable and they certainly don’t warrant the premium price they expect for ordinary serviced.
Japan Airlines of whole we always fly are playing around with there schedule to much and we wish they would stabilize this with more frequency, however flew ANA from Sydney last year and they were great but SYD airport not so great, dirty un helpful and just ordinary. As for MEL airport I must say they are starting to improve albeit very slow.
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on ANA pushes back return of Perth-Tokyo flights