Tickets for ANA's Sydney-Tokyo Boeing 787-9 flights now on sale
By David Flynn, August 7 2015
Japanese airline ANA will begin Boeing 787-9 flights between Sydney and Tokyo from 11 December 2015, introducing competition for Qantas on the resurgent Australia-Japan route.
The daily service will be flown by a Boeing 787-9, which will depart from Tokyo's downtown Haneda Airport at 10.10pm as NH879 to reach Sydney at 9.35am the next day.
After spending the day in Sydney, ANA's Dreamliner will be wheels-up at 9.30pm as flight NH880, allowing business travellers to hit the ground running in Haneda – perhaps fuelled by an extra strong shot of coffee – at 5.05am the next day.
Inbound travellers headed for elsewhere in Japan will have plenty of domestic ANA connections to choose from, with the airline offering an add-on 'Experience Japan' fare of ¥10,800 (A$120) for any domestic segment.
Tickets for the new route are now on sale, with return business class prices from the December 11 debut of ANA's flight NH879 through to early January 2016 start at ¥304,720 or $3,312.
Tickets can also be snapped up using frequent flyer points from a diverse array of sources including Virgin Australia, Singapore Airlines, American Express Membership Rewards and Westpac Altitude Rewards, as well as miles bought 'in bulk' from Avianca and United.
Read: How to book ANA’s Sydney-Tokyo flights with frequent flyer points
ANA pulled out of the Sydney-Tokyo route in July 1999, leaving the corridor in the hands of Qantas and its Oneworld partner Japan Airlines.
Qantas currently runs a daily flight between Sydney and Tokyo's Haneda Airport, while Japan Airlines operates a daily Boeing 777 service between Sydney and Narita. Qantas' low-cost arm Jetstar flies from several Australia cities into Tokyo and Osaka.
Inside ANA's Boeing 787-9
ANA has the world's largest fleet of Boeing 787s, with both the original 787-8 (for which it was the launch airline) and the larger, longer-range 787-9.
Sydney will be seeing an 'international' version of ANA's Boeing 787-9, rather than the model used for domestic flights (which has more seats overall, and only recliners in business class instead of fully-flat beds).
The international Dreamliner has 215 seats split between business class, premium economy and economy cabins.
The 48 business class seats, arranged in a staggered 1-2-1 layout so that each passenger enjoys privacy as well as direct aisle access, convert to a fully flat bed.
A cosy 21 seat premium economy zone offers more legroom across the 2-3-2 configuration, with a swing-up legrest in the front row and swing-down footrests in all other rows, plus AC and USB power for every seat.
There are no surprises in economy, with 146 seats arranged 3-3-3 at a respectable 34 inch pitch and AC and USB sockets close at hand.
ANA has also dressed one of its Boeing 787-9s in an eye-catching Star Wars livery...
... inspired by R2-D2, to be precise...
Read: New Boeing 787 has unique Star Wars livery
Also read: ANA's fleet now includes the Millennium Falcon?
Follow Australian Business Traveller on Twitter: we're @AusBT
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Thai Airways International - Royal Orchid Plus
15 Jan 2013
Total posts 279
Any kind of direct competition is a good thing.
31 Jan 2013
Total posts 35
Before they start flying here it might be good if they allowed ticketing here. For some bizarre reason, when they pulled out of Australia they cancelled all ticketing rights so Australian travel agents cannot sell any routes on this airline. Despite being a major member of Star Alliance and a very big airline, I can ticket for instance Velavia from Minsk to Prague without problem but cannot ticket ANA from Tokyo to Los Angeles. So they obviously don't consider Australia very highly.
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
17 Nov 2014
Total posts 96
Australia - Japan market has been dominant by Japan Airlines, Qantas and Jetstar in recent years. It is good to see ANA back.
However, I hope ANA can consider codesharing and tie up with Virgin Australia so Velocity members can earn and burn points on ANA and vice versa, along with their frequent flyer benefit, codesharing and interlining, to increase the catchment of passengers, particularly from Adelaide and Tullamarine.
Of course, on return, Velocity members will then be able to get shorter flying time between Australia and North East Asia via Haneda rather than Changi, which I believe it is important for VA if they want their virtual flying network to outweigh Qantas.
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
06 Feb 2014
Total posts 70
Great News. To be competitive though they need to ensure flat beds in Business class or else no one will fly them!
12 Jun 2013
Total posts 744
(a) Except for all those passengers in other classes.
(b) They have fully flat beds in business class so I'm not sure what you're talking about.
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
06 Feb 2014
Total posts 70
re My comment about Flat beds in Business class, now that we know they are flying the dreamliner ,the business class flat bed is confirmed. There was some doubt about whether they may have used the 767 with a cradle type non flat bed seat in business. I think the expectation of a flat bed in business class is reasonable these days if you are Forking out that kind of money, so I can't understand why you have a problem with that Hugo.
10 Sep 2012
Total posts 151
This is fantastic news, and with a 789 too. Direct aisle access from each seat in J. You gonna install that config on your 744 fleet sometime, Qantas?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
23 Nov 2010
Total posts 20
Finally some good respresentation fro *A. Now we're not beholden to OW and QF. With NH, SQ, TK, TZ, TG we finally get some good representations. QFF is a joke, a fraud and I can't wait to see the end of the bastards.Bring it on ACCC, the sooner the better
12 Jun 2013
Total posts 744
>QFF is a joke, a fraud and I can't wait to see the end of the bastards.
While Qantas Frequent Flyer isn't a great program, you can always just not participate if you don't like it.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
19 Mar 2014
Total posts 574
12 hours is a long time on the deck... Interesting for crew placement and aircraft utilisaton.
09 Apr 2015
Total posts 20
QF do the same with their 747 in NRT. This service is directly on top of QF.
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 954
Assuming the times posted in this story are true (given that ANA declined to comment), then it is likely related to the long haul slot times available at HND. The Australia route hasn't been given any of the day time long haul slots.
ANA could also tie the flight times into a long haul ex-HND flight that does have day time slots, such as Europe.
With these assumed flight times almost the same as the QF HND flights, is it likely that the extra seats NH puts in the market will trigger the QF flight to downgrade to a 330?
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
19 Mar 2014
Total posts 574
Downgrade in capacity but upgrade in hard product ie the new business suite. I'd say this is highly likely.
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
17 Nov 2014
Total posts 96
Provided such a long layover, I would be interested if they will consider extending the service to Auckland if they can get into a deal with Air New Zeland or Virgin Australia?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 Jun 2011
Total posts 79
Or put on a tag flight to MEL
05 Sep 2011
Total posts 66
So the video and images show reverse herringbone seating in business, while the seat map clearly shows a staggered layout. I think the video is a Boeing video and nothing to do with ANA or its aircraft.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 Sep 2013
Total posts 1139
Exactly. Facts need to be checked and clarified.
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2352
Ksmith: you're correct, the video was flagged as ANA's B789 upon inspection turned out to be a generic Boeing one, so we've removed the video and amended the article to reflect that.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
19 Nov 2011
Total posts 246
I'd give ANA and JAL a go. They look great with the recent hard product improvements.
I've spoken to people who've flown them and compliments were coming out of them.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
06 Nov 2014
Total posts 343
The business class on the seat map looks like staggered seat as their 77W, but the video looks like reverse herringbone. Do you know which one will we get?
Hope they don't reverse the decision.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Jan 2012
Total posts 172
ANA are cancelling 1 of there twice daily flights to Paris from 25 October. I wonder if this is where the capacity comes from to launch Sydney.
There is nothing on the ANA website confirming the launch at this stage.
14 Jun 2013
Total posts 360
Darren, I expect you're right there. Nothing on ANA site about the launch but I reckon this is another solid AusBT scoop, the guys here don't do 'rumours' like so many blogs but what they post tends to turn out right!
02 Apr 2015
Total posts 8
love ANA....
30 Mar 2015
Total posts 23
...NAS?
15 Jul 2015
Total posts 1
Looks like this article was on the money. ANA rep on facebook confirmed to a user yesterday that the SYD-HND route will be announced shortly as there hasn't been an official date.
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
14 Jan 2014
Total posts 294
So I'm taking it that they have sorted out the icing problem on GE engines flying through the tropics then?
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
06 Sep 2012
Total posts 213
ANA Boeing 787s employ Rolls Royce engines and from what I've heard they haven't had any problems with ice build up. They probably learnt the lesson from the BA 777 incident back in 2008.
30 Jun 2011
Total posts 50
Excellent news for skiers, and with a 5 am arrival and additional AUD$120 fare through to Sapporo you could be knee-deep in Niseko powder at 2 pm ! Actually Hyperdia suggests that there is a 7:30 am monorail that could see you connecting to the Shinkansen for a 10 am arrival in Nagano - amazing.
24 Oct 2011
Total posts 162
so so so excited! I hope this competition encourages Japan Airlines to permanently put the 777ER with the suites on the Syd route.
17 Jul 2015
Total posts 1
Can get to Hakuba by 9.30am
Monorail to Hamamatsucho then Yamanote sen to Tokyo then 7.20 Shinkansen to Nagano arrive 8.48am
Did this trip in May
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 Jul 2017
Total posts 2
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
14 Jan 2015
Total posts 29
"No surprises in economy" ...are you kidding ! 34in pitch - wow that's huge ! Yes it has the now infamously standard 3-3-3 but 34in pitch will make a huge difference to passenger comfort - I would go out of my way to fly with them even though I have QF FF !
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
06 Sep 2012
Total posts 213
I agree Richard, if I had to choose between knee crushing 31' seating pitch and 3-3-3 seating with >32' pitch I'd choose the 3-3-3 seating anyday. At least you can book at the back of the aircraft where the seating reduces to 2-4-2 so it's more bearable.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
31 Aug 2012
Total posts 194
Any word when Star Alliance miles will be usable for award bookings?
02 Apr 2015
Total posts 8
love ANA.
02 Apr 2015
Total posts 8
possible to book multi legged flights from their site? e.g sydney to tokyo, tokyo to shanghai
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 Jul 2017
Total posts 2
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on Tickets for ANA's Sydney-Tokyo Boeing 787-9 flights now on sale