TokyoTomo Travel Guide

ANA will apply revised jet fuel surcharges for tickets to be issued between October 1 and December 31, by regrouping the areas to which the surcharge applies and setting the new surcharge level.

A primary change focuses on the areas to be regrouped, namely from the current “Hawaii, India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia” route into two new routes “Hawaii, India” and ” Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia”. The present routing “Vietnam, Guam, Hong Kong, Taiwan” will also be regrouped into two, namely “Vietnam, Guam” and a new group “China, Hong Kong, Taiwan” by listing Hong Kong and Taiwan under the current “China”. Effective from October 1 the regrouping will, in effect, raise the fuel surcharge in one area and keep the status quo in the other.

ANA has also fixed the benchmark kerosene price for fuel surcharges applicable to the newly regrouped areas with the jet fuel price averaging between 140 US$ and 150 US$ from October 1 to December 31. The airline has meanwhile set up two higher kerosene benchmarks with a range from150 to 159 US$ and 160 to 169 US$ per barrel as a measuring stick, should the jet fuel continue to hike.

Commenting on the regrouping of the routes and the revision of the surcharge levels, ANA’s public relations office said, “We have placed a special emphasis on finding a balance based, especially, on our aircraft fuel consumption and on the competitive environment with our competitors.” The airline added, “We had originally intended to further segment the current fuel surcharge levels to set up a surcharge amount per distance flown, then decided otherwise since things may turn out to be too complicated and not transparent to our customers.”

The airline is therefore said to have made a revision only to the regrouping of applicable areas of surcharges. Considering a possible impact on the market demand as well, ANA mentioned, “We have effected the changes exactly according to the market needs, judging from the passenger production figures.”

Regarding a tentative surcharge level set due to a possible further increase of the fuel surcharges, the airline explained, “It is the worst scenario that we might encounter. The next benchmark period from January to March next year shows a further rise, but we don’t necessarily simply implement the increase.” The airline implied that it might freeze the surcharge level, not reflecting the further soaring jet fuel price as it was observed during the period from January to March this year when the two Japanese airlines had a different strategy for the jet fuel surcharge.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

ANA Sales Co. has started sales of autumn/ winter series of Hello Tour. There are several features and benefits added to the upcoming new series. For instance, on all tours of “ANA’S,” families and friends are guaranteed to have a seat assignment of sitting side by side.

As for tours to China, the agency appeals its efforts in its tour brochures to clear away any concerns about food problems. It has introduced the following steps as precautionary measures: (1) to give a certification badge to a local tour guide who has finished a special training course programmed by ANA Sales, (2) to disclose service evaluation and comments given by tour participants to make the relevant improvements, (3) to conduct periodical checkup on the sanitary conditions of local restaurants.

In the meantime, the agency has merchandised several new courses to Asia, for example, tours to Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat, Macau, Krabi (Thailand), and honeymoon trips to resorts. When people book on a tour flown on ANA’s Singapore route more than 21 days before the departure, they are given a discount of 16,000 yen.

Regarding long-haul tours like a free-stay plan to Europe and a Honolulu course to Hawaii, a 6-day tour and a 7-day tour are offered at the same price. In case of Hawaii, if a participant opts for an upgrade of flight to Club ANA (business class), unified price of 80,000 yen is applied as an additional charge irrespective of departure date.

The goals in the number of customers for the period are set at 4,000 to Guam and neighboring islands, down 45 percent from the previous year, and 22,500 to Asia, down 8 percent, taking the fact into account that All Nippon Airways suspends Nagoya/ Taipei service from October 2008 and Osaka/ Guam service from January 2009. The agency aims to handle 11,800 customers to China after the Olympic Games, down 3 percent, so the total number with all destinations combined becomes 53,300, down 12 percent.

As to the gross pricing method to include oil surcharge, the public relations office of ANA Sales says they will deal with the matter positively once the airlines make their final decision, but suggested it could be implemented from the next season at the earliest.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

An agreement was reached after the aviation officials of Japan and Korea met on August 12 and 13 that effective from October 2010, when the 4th runway at Tokyo’s Haneda is slated for operations, scheduled services are to start between Haneda and Seoul’s Gimpo with daytime slots.

It is the first time for international flights to be granted take-off and landing slots at Haneda Airport during the daytime. 8 daily round-trip flights, which are currently being operated as scheduled charter flights, will be allowed to serve as scheduled flights. With 4 additional round-trip slots granted, there will be 12 daily scheduled services between the two airports, 4 of which can be routed to Pusan, Korea from Haneda.

The aviation talks also brought an agreement that 4 daily round-trip services be operated between Haneda and points in Korea, taking advantage of late evening and early morning take-off and landing slots at Haneda.

Furthermore, effective from the winter schedule this year, both parties agreed to inaugurate 4 daily flights between Osaka’s Kansai and Seoul’s Gimpo.

This framework enables both Japanese and Korean carriers to evenly share the number of slots granted. According to the international air transport division of Civil Aviation Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, a newly established airline has meanwhile started operations in Korea and may inaugurate its service to and from Haneda, if not by Korean Air (KE) nor Asiana (OZ).

The number of individual passengers bookable on a scheduled charter flight is presently limited to 50% of the salable cabin capacity, but the restriction imposed will be removed after October 2010.

On completion of the 4th runway at Haneda, the number of allowable international take-off and landing slots in the daytime will be 40 round-trip flights per day, 12 of which are already assigned to Japanese and Korean airlines as agreed during the round of aviation talks. The remaining number of slots will be distributed in accordance with coming air talks with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan which are slated for during the next one year or so.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.