ANA currently operates three Star Wars-themed aircraft, two (R2D2 ANA Jet and BB-8 ANA Jet) on international flights and one (C3PO ANA Jet) on domestic flights.
The airline doesn’t reveal the flights on which these aircraft operate in advance. However, it made an exception to celebrate the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie, and published the flights that the C3PO ANA Jet will be seen on between December 1, 2019, and December 14, 2019.
C3PO ANA Jet’s Schedule in the First Half of December 2019
Currently, ANA operates three Star Wars-themed aircraft: R2D2 ANA Jet, BB-8 ANA Jet, and C3PO ANA Jet. The C3PO ANA Jet, a Boeing 777-200ER (JA743A) painted as the saga’s well-known droid, operates on a wide variety of domestic routes throughout Japan, mainly out of Tokyo Haneda.
Mitsuo Tomita, Senior Vice President of ANA, said that:
ANA seeks to inspire joy in all of our passengers, and we believe the C-3PO ANA Jet allows us to showcase our more playful side.
While ANA doesn’t publish the schedules of its aircraft in special liveries in advance, it is temporarily doing so with the C3PO ANA Jet to celebrate the upcoming Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker.
The airline announced that between December 1, 2019, and December 14, 2019, the C3PO ANA Jet will operate the following flights every day (subject to change, of course):
- NH243 / HND – FUK / 8:20AM – 10:20AM
- NH250 / FUK – HND / 11:25AM – 1:00PM
- NH27 / HND – ITM / 2:00PM – 3:05PM
- NH32 / ITM – HND / 4:00PM – 5:10PM
- NH267 / HND – FUK / 6:00PM – 8:05PM
- NH272 / FUK – HND / 8:55PM – 10:30PM
As you can see above, the aircraft’s operations will be limited to flights from Tokyo Haneda (HND) to Fukuoka (FUK) and Osaka Itami (ITM). That’s in contrast with the aircraft’s usual operations during which it can be seen on any of the routes operated by 777-200 aircraft.
For example, over the last week or so, the aircraft operated flights from Tokyo to Fukuoka, Ishigaki, Nagasaki, Naha, and Osaka among others. It also operated between Fukuoka and Sapporo.
Summary
Since normally ANA doesn’t publish the flights on which the StarWars-themed aircraft will operate in advance, they are fairly difficult to catch a flight on. As such, while only for a limited period of time, it’s nice to see ANA reveal the flights on which the C3PO ANA Jet will be deployed.
If you are a Star Wars fan and plan to visit Tokyo in the first half of December 2019, then you might want to consider taking a flight on the aircraft. Besides the livery, you will also be able to enjoy Star Wars-themed onboard service.
Also, make sure to read about United’s upcoming Star Wars-themed 737 if you haven’t done so yet.
