Virgin seals ANA pact

Virgin Australia’s upcoming new Brisbane-tokyo Haneda flights will now be part of a wider partnership with Star Alliance member All Nippon Airways, which was finalised in Japan last month by VA Chief Commercial Officer, John Macleod.

An initial code-sharing deal which will see ANA passengers able to fly on six Virgin Australia routes within Australia is set to expand in the coming months to also encompass reciprocal frequent flyer benefits, Japanese domestic codeshares and also codesharing on both airlines’ services between Australia and Japan. Macleod noted that over 500,000 Australians had travelled to Japan in 2018, with the expansion of capacity set to see this figure soar. “It’s important to us to provide travellers with better choice and convenience with our new flights from Brisbane, and the ability to travel onward in Japan with ANA”.

ANA is also set to add a second daily Haneda-sydney service under an expanded aviation bilateral, while Qantas is also boosting Japanese seat numbers with a new MelbourneTokyo Haneda flight.

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