KUALA LUMPUR: All Nippon Airways Co Ltd (ANA), Japan’s largest air carrier by revenues and passenger numbers, is returning to Kuala Lumpur after a 13-year hiatus, but this time around, it will connect the Malaysian capital with Tokyo.

The airline will offer a daily, non-stop service between the two cities beginning today.

According to ANA senior marketing vice-president Kenya Inada, the airline will service the route with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with a target load factor of 70%.

The airline suspended its Kuala Lumpur-Osaka flights in 2002 following losses due to low passenger load.

Inada is optimistic the new Kuala Lumpur-Tokyo route will be viable as it looks to fill the vacuum from North America to Kuala Lumpur left by Malaysia Airlines (MAS), which had pulled out of the market last year to focus its attention on Asia.

“What we have seen since 2013, is that the number of Japanese passengers travelling from Japan to Kuala Lumpur has grown by 10% per year,” he told digitaledge DAILY in an interview.

“By tapping into the traffic from North America, we expect that the number of travellers [coming to Malaysia] will increase by more than 15% per year,” he said.

Inada noted that currently, passengers bound from North America to Kuala Lumpur would make a transit stop at the airport in Hong Kong, Seoul or Bangkok.

“We think that with ANA’s better connectivity and time schedule offered to and from the 10 cities [ANA flies to] in North America, we can capture some of these Kuala Lumpur-bound transit traffic to make a layover at Narita Airport (Tokyo) instead,” he said.

In the North American region, ANA flies to Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, Washington DC, San Jose, Honolulu and Vancouver.

On its Kuala Lumpur-Tokyo flights, ANA will be competing against MAS, AirAsia X Bhd and Japan Airlines Co Ltd.

Inada said he is undeterred by the competition on the route with ANA’s choice of ight schedules.

“The Kuala Lumpur to Narita (flights) depart in the morning and arrive at Narita at 3pm. Passengers can then make flight connections to most of the cities in the United States.

“Likewise, the same connectivity works for those travelling from North America to Kuala Lumpur. This is the sort of connectivity not offered by our competitors and we are confident that the route will be a profitable one,” he explained.

Inada said another reason for its decision to resume flights to Kuala Lumpur follows the visa requirement relaxation for Malaysians to Japan in 2013.

“Since the move, we have seen more Malaysians travelling to Japan and vice versa,” he said.

Citing data provided by the Japan National Tourism Organisation, Inada pointed out that the number of Malaysians visiting Japan rose 41% year-on-year (y-o-y) in 2014. Between January and July this year, the number rose by an additional 16% y-o-y.

“Also, ANA flies to more than 10 cities in Asia and it would seem strange if we do not fly to a big city like Kuala Lumpur,” he added.

Apart from Kuala Lumpur, ANA is to launch a new route from Tokyo to Brussels, Belgium this month and Sydney, Australia in December.

This year, ANA is expecting to achieve a net profit of ¥52 billion (RM1.79 billion) on revenue of ¥1.79 trillion. In 2014, ANA posted a group net profit of ¥39.239 billion and generated revenue of ¥1.7 trillion.

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on September 1, 2015.