ABX Air, All Nippon Airways extend ACMI agreement to 2010

Under the agreement, ABX Air will continue to support ANA's cargo operations in the Asian market, including Japan, China and Thailand, through two ABX Air 767-200 aircraft and ABX Air flight crews and maintenance personnel.

Wilmington, Ohio-based ABX said it expects revenue from the new agreement with ANA in excess of $32 million on an annualized basis.

The company's stock was down 4 cents at $2.81.

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• ANA – and Japan's transport system – appears oblivious to coming LCC impacts, which will be vast
  15-May-2012

  All Nippon Airways (ANA) has reported a very strong financial result for the past year, despite severe headwinds in the wake of the Mar-2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster. This augurs well for the short term as new Boeing 787s arrive and international partnerships are forged with the carrier's Star Alliance partners.

  But in its forward vision there appears very little to suggest management fully comprehends the likely impact the three new LCCs (as well as an expanding Skymark) will have on Japan's domestic and regional short/medium-haul markets. And, in Japan's carefully managed transport system, embracing its world class shinkansen high-speed rail and high quality toll roads, pricing instability is about to disrupt travel behaviour in ways seemingly not apparent to Tokyo's planners.

  A quick look at what has happened elsewhere in the world, once truly low-cost airline operations arrive, should be enough to make any observer aware of the potential of adding three new LCCs to Japan's slumbering domestic market in the space of six months. But apparently not in Japan. As has been observed many times in this context: once this egg is scrambled, it does not go back in its shell.

• All Nippon Airways confident due to 2011 financial success but there are changes ahead
  14-May-2012

  Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) has achieved the impressive accomplishment of posting a record profit not only in the current economic environment but in the year immediately after Japan’s Mar-2011 devastating earthquake and tsunami. ANA's JPY97 billion (USD1.2 billion) operating profit came on the back of international growth and early introduction of cost-cutting measures. While ANA may enjoy this momentum for another year or two, its medium- and long-term strategy is far from certain and could challenge the ability to repeat ANA's recent gains.

  The Japanese market is about to undergo a significant structural shift with the introduction of LCCs that will reshape domestic and short-haul regional flights. ANA is fully aware of new LCCs – its subsidiary Peach was the first to market and ANA will shortly co-launch AirAsia Japan – its management plan has seemingly not taken the carriers into full consideration. Rival Japan Airlines is planning to decrease its exposure to the domestic market, already lower than at ANA, while ANA is planning to grow its LCC-exposed domestic network.

  History suggests ANA's domestic strategy is in substantial need of revision.