Today marks two years since AirAsia Japan returned to the Japanese skies.
While the airline has managed to grow its fleet as well as open new destinations, its growth has been modest to say the least.
“New” AirAsia Japan Celebrates Two Years in Operation
AirAsia originally started AirAsia Japan in 2011 as a joint-venture with ANA, commencing operations out of Tokyo Narita in 2012. It wasn’t long before AirAsia exited that investment in 2013, though.
What was the original AirAsia Japan turned into Vanilla Air after AirAsia’s exit. As you might have read on this blog a couple of days ago, Vanilla Air ceased operations recently and was integrated into ANA’s other low-cost carrier, Peach Aviation.
AirAsia announced its return to Japan in 2014, this time in partnership with Rakuten and a number of other Japanese companies. The new airline, this time based at Nagoya Centrair, received its first aircraft, an Airbus A320, in 2015 and its second one in 2016.
However, it wasn’t until October 29, 2017, exactly two years ago, that the airline started operations. The inaugural flight operated on the airline’s first, and at that time sole route, Nagoya – Sapporo. You can read my report of the inaugural flight here.
At that time, Tony Fernandes, Air Asia Group CEO, said:
Airasia Japan’s inaugural flight is all about the blood, sweat and tears that we have put into making true low-cost travel in Japan a reality, and I want to give a special thanks to Chubu Centrair for being there for us every step of the way.
Since then, AirAsia launched an additional domestic route as well as its first international route. It also added another A320 into its fleet.
Currently, it serves the following destinations out of Nagoya Centrair:
- Sapporo New Chitose (three daily rotations)
- Sendai (one daily rotation)
- Tapei Taoyuan (one daily rotation)
In the two years of operation, the airline has transported roughly 650,000 passengers on the three routes combined.
AirAsia’s Other Presence in Japan
While operations of AirAsia Japan are fairly limited, other AirAsia group airlines have considerable presence in Japan as well.
AirAsia X connects Kuala Lumpur with Fukuoka, Osaka Kansai, Sapporo, and Tokyo Haneda. It also flies from Osaka Kansai onwards to Honolulu in Hawaii. Route to Tokyo Narita is scheduled to restart next month and route to Naha to launch in January 2020.
Thai AirAsia X flies from Bangkok Don Muang to Fukuoka, Nagoya Centrair, Osaka Kansai, Sapporo, and Tokyo Narita.
Finally, Philippines AirAsia recently made its entry into Japan with a daily flight from Manila to Osaka Kansai.
Summary
When AirAsia Japan launched operations for the first time, true low-cost airlines were a fairly unknown concept in Japan. Facing some challenges with that, AirAsia decided to exit the investment and wait for a better time.
Launching in the country for the second time, the company faced some challenges on its way to the October 29, 2017, inaugural flight, however, it managed to overcome those and start building its presence in the country.
Even now, two years after its launch, however, the airline’s footprint is fairly small.
That said, AirAsia as a group is becoming more and more popular with Japanese travelers. Whether that means AirAsia Japan’s flights or flights from Japan to Southeast Asia operated by AirAsia X, Thai AirAsia X, and Philippines AirAsia.
As such, hopefully, AirAsia Japan will be able to enjoy some more growth going forward.
