ANA Announces Demon Slayer Themed Aircraft For 2022

All Nippon Airways (ANA) will introduce two aircraft over the next year sporting livery inspired by the Japanese TV animation series Demon Slayer. The first restyled jet will be in service from late January 2022.

Two ANA planes to get a temporary new look

A Boeing 767-300ER (registration JA616A) will soon feature the special livery that includes characters from the popular anime series. Demon Slayer is a Japanese manga series that tells the story of a teenager who wants to become a demon slayer after his family was killed and his sister turned into a demon.

Plenty of us don’t need to watch TV to know all about demon sisters, but the hugely popular show attracts millions of viewers in Japan, and ANA has teamed up with the production company to promote the series.

“We are excited to partner with Demon Slayer to generate excitement and share Japanese culture with a wider audience,” said Junko Yazawa, Senior Vice President, Customer Experience Management & Planning of ANA.

“At ANA, we are constantly looking for ways to improve the travel experience, whether that be through the expansion of our award-winning service, the extension of our hygiene protocols, or new entertainment experiences. We are confident that when our Demon Slayer-themed aircraft enter service in January 2022, they will offer a unique flight experience.” 

ANA makes Demon Slayer themed changes to their domestic inflight product

The partnership is slated to run for one year. Until then, ANA will offer Demon Slayer-themed paper cups and special paper toys for children across all its domestic flights. Episodes of the show will also be available as in-flight entertainment on domestic and international flights.

Onboard JA616A, the cabin will feature a limited edition headrest cover and aprons for the cabin attendants and unique in-flight announcements by the characters. It gives this writer a headache just thinking about it.

A second Demon Slayer jet will also enter service, but the exact design is not yet finalized. ANA is also planning to operate some Demon Slayer-themed scenic flights using these aircraft. ANA is carving out a niche running some somewhat off-beat promotional campaigns designed to get the Japanese population flying again.

Behind the scenes, ANA works to cut costs

In the first half of 2021, ANA posted a net loss of US$866.6 million. The airline expects to make a substantial loss over this Japanese fiscal year. Behind headline-grabbing stunts like Demon Slayer planes, there is a concerted push to lower costs at the ANA.

Around 9,000 jobs are expected to go at the airline over the next five years. The airline will achieve that target via retirements and a freeze on new hires. ANA expects to have a workforce of around 29,000 people by 2025.

After spectators were barred from the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, those Games became a major flop for ANA. But while international travel demand in and out of Japan stagnates, there is some improvement on the domestic front.

In the first half of 2021, 7.14 million Japanese took a domestic flight, compared to 4.67 million over the same period in the previous year. This year’s numbers would have been better but for a long-running states of emergency in place in big cities like Tokyo and Osaka that curbed travel demand.

However, ANA does expect a steady recovery in its domestic operations. The airline is eyeing flying 50% of its pre-pandemic domestic capacity by the end of this year and 85% by the end of Q1 2022.

And as the Demon Slayer promotion attests, ANA isn’t shy about pulling out every stunt in the airline PR playbook to get people booking flight tickets again.

Source: https://simpleflying.com/all-nippon-airways-demon-slayer/