AIRLINES
ANA plans huge increase in charters

Advertiser Staff and News Services

All Nippon Airways Co., Asia's second-biggest carrier, said it would operate 10 times more charter flights from Tokyo's Haneda Airport after the city's main domestic airport sets aside 70 additional slots for such services.

Japan's largest domestic airline will operate a total of 300 additional flights from April 1 to March 2003, according ANA spokesman Fred Tanaka.

The increase will include 170 flights a year from Haneda to Seoul, and another 100 flights from Seoul to Haneda.

During the peak season, an additional 30 flights will be added between Haneda and Guam or Honolulu.

Yesterday, officials said the exact number of flights to Honolulu was still uncertain.

"We don't know what the allocation is," Tanaka said.

The charter routes are an opportunity for the airline to benefit from traffic for the World Cup soccer tournament being co-hosted by Japan, and the popularity of Guam for tourism, even as the country's recession hurts demand for air travel.

Scheduled flights are late-night departures and early morning arrivals in Tokyo.

All Nippon has said the number of passengers traveling overseas fell 27 percent to 254,419 people last month, while the company ferried 3.3 million travelers on domestic routes, 8.1 percent fewer than in the year-earlier month.