Aircraft

All Nippon Airways plans to place an order for large widebody aircraft to replace its Boeing 747-400s and has also confirmed it will be looking at ordering regional jets, possibly the Mitsubishi Regional Jet.

The carrier has issued a mid-term plan for the period April 2008 to the end of March 2012 in which it says it plans to order large widebody aircraft for first delivery sometime in 2012 or beyond.

It also says "the introduction of a regional jet will be examined" and if it proceeds with an order the first aircraft will be delivered in 2012 or later.

ANA said last month that it had established a committee to evaluate three types of 90-seat regional jet including Japan's Mitsubishi Regional Jet.

In the more immediate term, the airline's fleet expansion will result from its existing orders for 28 Boeing 737-700/800s, 26 Boeing 787s and five Boeing 777s. ANA says by March 2012 it will have retired its 19 747-400s, 60 Boeing 767-300s, 25 Boeing 737-500s and three Fokker 50s.

The aircraft coming in will be used to help the carrier achieve its mid-term plan goal of increasing services to Europe and the USA by 26%, says ANA, adding that these services will launch from Tokyo Narita.

In the second half of the 2009 fiscal year ANA will establish an Asian cargo hub on Okinawa and there will also be some cargo flights from Okinawa to the USA and Europe it will be increasing the cargo fleet to 14 widebody freighters by March 2012 from its current six.