Today, JAL unveiled a new special livery, titled “20th ARASHI THANKS JET” and worn by one of the airline’s new Airbus A350s.
The aircraft will operate its first revenue flight tomorrow, November 25, 2019, and will be seen on flights from Tokyo to Fukuoka, Sapporo, and Okinawa from then on.
JAL “20th ARASHI THANKS JET” Special Livery
The new livery, featuring one of the most popular Japanese boybands – Arashi – is worn by JAL’s fourth and at this point latest Airbus A350-900, JA04XJ. As the livery’s name suggests, the livery is designed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut.
On its right side, the aircraft features a photo of the band members from twenty years ago, and on the left side if features a recent photo. It also features a small “20th ARASHI THANKS JET AIRBUS A350” decal at the front on both sides.
The aircraft was unveiled in JAL’s hangar on November 25, 2019, at the presence of Jun Matsumoto, one of Arashi’s members. It will enter into service tomorrow, November 26, 2019, on flight JL503 departing Tokyo Haneda at 7:30AM and arriving in Sapporo at 9:00AM.
From then on, it will be used together with the other three JAL A350s on domestic routes from Tokyo Haneda to Sapporo and Fukuoka. Starting from February 1, 2020, the type is also expected to be deployed on flights from Haneda to Okinawa.
According to JAL, the aircraft is expected to stay in the livery until the end of 2020.
It’s worth noting that this is not the only JAL aircraft to currently wear an Arashi-themed livery.
Earlier this year, the “ARASHI HAWAII JET” took to the skies. That livery is worn by a Boeing 787-9 registered JA873J. As its name suggests, it mainly operates from Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka to Honolulu.
It’s first revenue flight was JL782 from Tokyo Narita to Honolulu on May 22, 2019, and the livery is expected to stay on the aircraft until the end of this year.
There have been four “ARASHI JETS” prior to the two above as well. In fact, the airline has been cooperating with the band in its marketing efforts for about a decade.
The original “ARASHI JET,” a Boeing 777-200 registered JA8982, entered into service in September 2010 and worn the livery for a few months mainly operating flights from Tokyo Haneda to Sapporo, Osaka, and Fukuoka.
One last thing worth noting is that with the Arashi decals applied to JA04XJ – and the first three A350s having relatively large “AIRBUS A350” decals applied to them – there is currently no JAL A350 wearing the airline’s standard livery.
Summary
As an aircraft enthusiast, I am always happy to see new special liveries take to the skies.
While this is certainly not a livery as elaborate as ANA’s Star Wars Jets for example, it is still a great improvement over some of the older generation “ARASHI JETS” which only featured smaller decals.
As such, I am looking forward to photographing the aircraft at either Haneda or one of the other airports it will operate to.
Hey Keishi … konnichiwa!
I found you website while searching for information on the Arashi Jet livery, which I saw on a JAL A350 youtube video. Your article is excellent and prompted me to visit other parts of your website … all I can say is WOW! The content and presentation is fabulous. I will spend more time looking through it.
I’m an air … liner / line / port enthusiast since growing-up within a few miles of Heathrow Airport in the 1970’s. I live now in Kingston, Ontario, Canada but take every opportunity to plane-spot at Toronto Pearson whenever I’m there.
I’ve visited Japan in April 2018 and 2019. On the 2019 visit, I did the ANA and JAL Hanger Tours on the same day, with spotting in-between at Haneda … that was awesome. I flew over (and back) on a Delta A350 which instantly became my favourite current aircraft. However, most of that trip was dedicated to railfanning which is also a huge interest for me, and you know how superb rail travel is in Japan.
Wishing you a Happy New Year! …. Arigatou gozaimasu
Amarjit Sandhu (Mr.)