ANA from NRT to BRU as from winter season 2015

[lumumba]

I don't understand this timetable is not so good for the euro connection most of the flight's of Brussels arrives between 19h00 and 20h15 ......For the bags transfer you need at least 1h or more!!!!!!

A quick count shows that the timetable allows for roughly fifteen connections to/from other SN served European cities, which may not seem a lot, but

C46Y+ 21Y 102

if this will indeed be the definitive configuration, ANA must be counting on a high number of high yield O&D pax.

It's a pity because if they fly one hour later they have a lot of connection and so they can pick up even more high yield passengers ....

[Flanker2]

Rough translation of the Nikkan article:

Summary:
ANA is going to expand the routes to Africa significantly. Using the route NRT-BRU set to start on October 25th, it will proceed with a codeshare with Belgian Brussels Airlines. Using codeshares with Africa-strong Brussels Airlines, the network and pax stream to Africa will be expanded, for instance to major cities in North Africa, hitting a milestone in the developping market of the future. The precise cities will be negotiated with Brussels Airlines and start being offered in early 2016.

The BRU-NRT route will be operated with American Boeing 787-8 aircraft and is expected to depart NRT at around 11am. Starting from the winter schedule, the NRT-CDG route will be cut and replaced by the NRT-BRU route.
ANA will codeshare with Brussels Airlines, gaining access to its European and African networks.

ANA's African network includes codeshares with ET, SAA, covering Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa.
However, the actual cities on offer is rather limited with 6 cities including CPT.
Brussels Airlines is under the umbrella of Lufthansa German Airlines, and is in the same alliance as ANA as a member of Star Alliance.
In addition to a European network, it streghtened its African network that includes cities such as NBO, Kenya, FIH, DRC, operating 19 cities with 80 flights per week. Starting October, it also plans to start flying to ACC, Ghana.

Actually, the pax stream travelling from Japan to Africa isn't that numerous with about 300 per day, but the economies are developping fast, and ANA will widen its network to the main cities with many inhabitants through the SN codeshare.

http://www.nikkan.co.jp/news/nkx1120150625aaaq.html

[Boeing767copilot]

ANA to launch new Tokyo-Brussels service from 25 October
Source: ANA
01/07/2015
ANA, Japan’s leading airline, is to launch its new service from Tokyo’s Narita Airport to Brussels on 25 October. This will be the first time ANA has flown to the Belgian capital and will make Brussels its sixth destination in Europe. The flight will be the only non-stop service from Japan to Belgium, playing an important role in ANA’s strategy to expand its international route network and enhance the airline’s brand awareness in Europe.

ANA will operate a daily service in each direction using Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft.

ANA aims to provide added convenience to passengers flying from Brussels Airport, with connections through its joint venture partners Lufthansa, Swiss International Airlines and Austrian Airlines, as well as Brussels Airlines, Star Alliance member. Beyond Europe, ANA serves 50 destinations throughout Japan, as well as 23 destinations across Asia. The travellers can explore ANA’s domestic destinations through its special discounted “Experience JAPAN Fare”.

Osamu Shinobe, President and CEO of ANA, said: “As a major economic, commercial and political center Brussels is an increasingly important market for us. More and more passengers are flying between Tokyo and Brussels but they currently have to do so by transiting through other cities. By becoming the only Japanese airline to offer direct flights to the city, ANA will dramatically improve access for passengers to and from Japan. We look forward to inviting passengers on board and enabling them to experience ANA’s quality of service.”

[brusselsairlinesfan]

The flights are already bookable right now!!!

[RoMax]

Schedule will change as from 27 March to an arrival at BRU at 15:50 and departure at 21:10. Especially that later departure time is good for EU connections.

Source: Routes Online

[chineseboy]

The flights are already bookable right now!!!

For the inaugural flight of 25th oct out of Narita to Brussels

5 bookings in C of 46
Y+ unknow
Y 53 bookings of 102

Not bad I think
Source: expedia.com

[Inquirer]

Now that more information is out, it looks like ANA surprised everybody by already launching their daily flights this winter already, iso next spring as was widely expected.
As such, they seem to be accepting a less optimal schedule and potentially also no or very limited immediate codesharing options for the first couple of months of operations.
Anybody in the know as to why they are in such a rush to come to BRU no matter what, after hesitating for years first? Not that I mind, but it's just looking a bit strange to me that they now seem to take everybody by complete surprise, including the airport and their partner airlines?
The good news is that this route may quickly upgrade to a bigger plane once the JV is fully up and running and the schedule is fully optimised.

Yes, and very soon indeed; already this autumn!
Nice lobbying from the Belgian government, BRU and SN combined.
Shows you that when they work together, they can achieve much more than just low cost riff raff.
More information on frequencies, schedule and SN code shares to come...

Puts this statement in a different spotlight

Euh... He (or she) seems to be spot on now that all the details about the temporarily initial schedule and its accelerated winter launch are out? Ok, there's an unkind comment about the type of flights your employer operates, but that doesn't make him (or her) ignorant about things related to Brussels Airlines, quite on the contrary it seems once again.

As to the connections (with hotel lay over in BRU) to Africa that were mentioned in that Japanese news article: how common is it to offer this kind of connecting method? Thinking about it: for extremely long trips, it's actually more of a convenience than an inconvenience, although I've never done something similar, so I can't really judge it first hand, but it sounds better than having a quick nap in a lounge box for a couple of hours.

[EBKT]

As to the connections (with hotel lay over in BRU) to Africa that were mentioned in that Japanese news article: how common is it to offer this kind of connecting method? Thinking about it: for extremely long trips, it's actually more of a convenience than an inconvenience, although I've never done something similar, so I can't really judge it first hand, but it sounds better than having a quick nap in a lounge box for a couple of hours.

Depends obviously if you need a (Schengen) visa te enter Belgium or not. I do not know if Japanese citizen do need this. For sure this will be rather difficult if this flight should attract travellers from other Asian countries. http://countries.diplomatie.belgium.be/ ... a_belgium/

[Didymus]

Japanese passport holders don't need a Schengen visa, see: http://www.schengenvisainfo.com/who-nee ... ngen-visa/

[Established02]

"ANA is looking for several Passenger Service Agents who can work at ANA Brussels Airport from September."

http://www.cvwarehouse.com/brusselsairp ... ompany=Ana

[Flanker2]

It seems that a lot of people are having trouble booking the new direct flights on ANA's website.
I myself have tried about 10 different ways and at different moments on the ANA website and I always get the following error message:

Information
We apologize as the line is busy or we are currently performing maintenance. Please try again later.

If you are seeing this message repeatedly, please contact ANA. (Error Code:E_G02F25_0002

I Googled the error code and found that another guy has the same problem:

http://cool-japans.com/p/14360.html


Anyways, I managed to book a flight through Expedia, and am stumbling upon this problem while trying to book more flights. I'm going to have to call their call center as Expedia isn't offering what I need.

Anyways, the 499 EUR return promotion on the direct flights are ending today, so if you haven't booked yet, you know what to do.

[Flanker2]

For clarification purposes, apparently the error message is owed to new mileage numbers.
If you enter your mileage number during the booking process, within 24 hours of making a mileage account, you get the error message.

Having corrected this, I managed to book directly on their website.

One more hurdle could be when you book for someone else. You need to login with a mileage account first before being able to book a flight for someone else with your credit card.

[EBKT]

The flights are already bookable right now!!!

For the inaugural flight of 25th oct out of Narita to Brussels

5 bookings in C of 46
Y+ unknow
Y 53 bookings of 102

Not bad I think
Source: expedia.com

Does anyone has an idea about the bookings/load factor so far for the inaugural flight ex-BRU on the 25th? Dreamliner with max.169 passengers (?) doesn't look that much neither to me to get quickly fully booked...

[SabenaForever]

ANA during the month of January 2016 is reducing Tokyo Narita – Dusseldorf service, due to seasonal market demand. From 04JAN16 to 04FEB16, the Star Alliance member will reduce operation from 7 to 5 weekly.

Planned schedule as follow.
NH209 NRT1100 – 1505DUS 788 x24
NH210 DUS2005 – 1535+1NRT 788 x24

[SabenaForever]

ANA today revealed planned Boeing 787-9 “R2-D2 ANA Jet” operation, due to enter service in mid-October 2015. In addition, the airline also announced 2nd and 3rd special Star Wars livery, “Star Wars ANA Jet” 767-300 and “BB-8 ANA Jet” 777-300ER, which will enter service respectively in November 2015 and as early as March 2016.

Early-December 2015 Tokyo Narita – Seattle
From mid-December 2015, from Tokyo Haneda to: Beijing, Jakarta, Munich, Paris CDG, Sydney and from Tokyo Narita to: Brussels

Source: airlineroute

So is ANA planning to use the 787-9 iso the smaller one? Maybe bookings are going good...

Grts

[brusselsairlinesfan]

Is it possible to book these flights through the brussels airlines web site?

[crew1990]

I already try but no it's not possible, it's like the flight to stutgart with germanwings

[Flanker2]

I'll be on the inaugural out of BRU, so I'll try to make a little report. (Any events planned?)

But it would not surprise me at all if ANA's bookings are doing relatively well for a start-up route and despite the lack of established codeshares. In fact, I've never seen JL sell 480 Euro tickets as they are doing now for ZYR-CDG-HND/NRT They must be hurting big time.

[RoMax]

Regarding booking the flights through SN. Last I heard was that there is a problem with a full codeshare for SN on the BRU-NRT route, but it is something completely beyond the power of SN and ANA. It has to be seen how their partnership develops beyond that problem or if maybe there comes a solution for the problem.

[Flanker2]

It would be interesting to know what kind of problems they are encountering for the codeshare.
Is it administrative or perhaps more to do with exclusivity agreements like the NH/LH JV?