ANA Holdings

A blue-and-white Dreamliner setting off on the long trip back to Tokyo from Frankfurt. A pink Airbus taxiing to the runway at Osaka Kansai. A jumbo freighter with a JA registration landing at Narita at night. All three belong to ANA Holdings, Japan’s largest airline group. That is good to know for your sightings – but what matters is that the holding company itself does not operate a single aircraft. The airlines beneath it do, each with its own look and partly its own codes.

From helicopter company to aviation group

The roots go back to the early 1950s. In December 1952, two small companies were founded in Japan: Nippon Helicopter and Far East Airlines. Nippon Helicopter renamed itself All Nippon Airways in 1957 and merged with Far East Airlines the following year. Over the decades this grew into an airline that for a long time shaped mainly the Japanese domestic market, while Japan Airlines, as the state-supported flag carrier, dominated international routes.

Not until 1986 did ANA launch its first international scheduled flight, Tokyo–Guam, and then build its own overseas network. Today it is the larger of the two big Japanese airlines. You meet its rival Japan Airlines at the same airports – with its own low-cost subsidiaries such as ZIPAIR and its stake in Jetstar Japan.

In April 2013, the group restructured: the previous company became the holding company ANA Holdings Inc., and flight operations moved into a new subsidiary with the familiar name All Nippon Airways. The headquarters is the Shiodome City Center in Tokyo’s Minato ward. Since then the holding company has stood above all the group’s flight, cargo and service companies.

The airlines of the group at a glance

Unlike European groups such as Lufthansa Group, ANA Holdings concentrates on a single home country. The roles are clearly divided: one network airline, one low-cost brand, two flight operations in the background and a strong cargo division.

ANA Wings and Air Japan have their own certificates and codes, but their flights generally run under ANA flight numbers. In your tracking app you then see “ANA” even though an aircraft of the subsidiary is flying. How callsigns and flight numbers relate is explained in the article Callsign and flight number.

All Nippon Airways: the flagship

All Nippon Airways is the brand you are most likely to see outside Asia. The airline has flown in Star Alliance since October 1999 and works closely with partners such as Lufthansa and United. How the big alliances differ is covered in the article Star Alliance, oneworld and SkyTeam.

For aviation fans, ANA is above all one thing: the Dreamliner airline. As launch customer, it took delivery of the world’s first Boeing 787-8 in September 2011. Today ANA flies all three variants – the 787-8, the 787-9 and the 787-10 – and is among the largest 787 operators of all. If you want to tell the variants apart, the article A350 or Boeing 787? helps with the first step: separating it from the Airbus.

On long-haul routes, the Boeing 777-300ER and older 777 versions round out the fleet. To replace the older 777-300ERs, ANA has ordered the Boeing 777-9. The 767-300ER is also still in service, mainly on shorter routes.

On short and medium-haul routes, ANA relies on the A320neo, the A321neo and the Boeing 737-800. The 737 MAX 8 is on order as the successor to the 737-800. In 2025, orders were also added for the Embraer E190-E2 for domestic service, as well as for more A321neos and the A321XLR.

Peach: pink instead of Triton Blue

Peach Aviation is the group’s low-cost brand. It was founded in February 2011, initially as A&F Aviation, back then still as a joint venture with an investor from Hong Kong. Peach operated its first scheduled flight on March 1, 2012, from Osaka Kansai to Sapporo Chitose. Kansai is still the most important base, joined by Narita, Naha and Sendai.

In 2019, Peach absorbed its sister company Vanilla Air, which had emerged from the former joint venture AirAsia Japan. That left ANA with just one low-cost brand. According to reports from late 2024, Peach now belongs entirely to the group. How the business model of such airlines works is explained in the article How low-cost carriers work.

The fleet consists of Airbus narrowbody jets: first-generation A320s, A320neos and a few longer-range A321LRs. More A321neos and A321XLRs are on the order list. The livery is unmistakable at the fence: pink, purple and white, with the name large on the tail and at the front of the fuselage. In April 2026, for its 15th anniversary, Peach unveiled a revised brand identity with a new livery – a good reason to have both versions in your archive for as long as they fly in parallel.

Besides Japanese domestic routes, Peach mainly serves destinations in East Asia. You will not see the pink jets in Europe – for your logbook they are a classic travel target.

ANA Wings and Air Japan: the operations in the background

ANA Wings was created on October 1, 2010, from the merger of several regional companies. It flies mainly in Japanese domestic service, with the Dash 8-400 from De Havilland Canada and with Boeing 737-800s. All aircraft wear ANA colors. If you see a turboprop in Triton Blue, you are practically always looking at an ANA Wings aircraft.

Air Japan has an eventful history. The company started in 1990 as World Air Network and has been called Air Japan since 2000. For a long time it flew international routes for ANA without much notice. In 2022, the group announced its own brand, AirJapan, which started in February 2024 with a Boeing 787-8 from Narita – with destinations such as Seoul, Bangkok and Singapore. At the end of March 2026, operations under this brand were discontinued again. The company continues to fly, but under the ANA brand. For collectors, an AirJapan 787 is therefore a subject with an expiration date that has already been reached.

Cargo: ANA Cargo and Nippon Cargo Airlines

Cargo is the area where ANA Holdings has changed the most recently. ANA Cargo uses the cargo holds of the passenger jets on the one hand and its own freighters on the other: Boeing 767-300Fs as well as converted 767s and the Boeing 777F. For the future of long-haul cargo, Boeing 777-8Fs are on the order book.

Since August 1, 2025, Nippon Cargo Airlines has also been fully part of the group. The story thus comes full circle: ANA had founded NCA in 1978 together with the shipping company NYK but sold its stake in 2005. In 2023, both sides agreed on the takeover, which was postponed several times because of lengthy antitrust reviews. NCA flies an all-Boeing 747-8F fleet – so newly built jumbos now belong to the ANA group. If you want to identify freighters reliably, the guide Identifying cargo aircraft helps, and the differences between the jumbo generations are explained in the article Boeing 747-100 to 747-8.

The NCA freighters fly with their own code KZ and the ICAO callsign NCA. NCA is also active in Europe, including with codeshare partners such as Cargolux. How the cargo businesses of ANA Cargo and NCA will mesh in the long run has been announced by the group in stages – check the companies’ announcements for details.

Hubs and spots in Japan

ANA Holdings concentrates on the two Tokyo airports, complemented by Osaka.

Tokyo Haneda is the heart of domestic traffic and, for some years now, also an important long-haul hub. Here 787s, 777s and short-haul jets in ANA colors land every minute, plus the Dash 8-400s of ANA Wings. The observation decks at the terminals are legendary – more at the spot Observation decks at Tokyo Haneda Airport and in the entry for Tokyo Haneda Airport.

Tokyo Narita is the second leg: long-haul, Peach, Air Japan and the freighters of ANA Cargo and NCA. One of the best-known spots is Sakura no Yama; the airport is introduced in the entry Tokyo Narita Airport.

Osaka is split between two airports: Kansai is the home of Peach and an NCA hub, while Itami is a domestic airport with a lot of ANA traffic. At the Senrigawa embankment in Itami, the jets pass spectacularly low over your head. An all-around guide for the capital is provided by the article Plane spotting in Tokyo.

ANA in Germany and Europe

You don’t have to travel to Japan to see ANA. The airline flies to Frankfurt and Munich, as well as to Vienna, Brussels, Paris, London, Milan, Stockholm and Istanbul, among others. Düsseldorf was also once in the network but has been discontinued. On the European routes, typically a 787 or 777-300ER operates; which aircraft exactly comes changes with the season and rotation. Check the current schedule before your spotting trip.

On the route to Europe, ANA works closely with Lufthansa Group. For your logbook, that means: a Lufthansa jet with an NH codeshare number remains a Lufthansa jet, and an ANA 787 in Frankfurt remains an ANA 787 – even if an LH number appears on the departure board.

How to identify the right operator

At ANA Holdings, the flight number can easily lead you astray, because several subsidiaries fly under ANA codes. With these steps, you arrive at a reliable sighting.

Liveries and special jets

ANA’s standard design is called Triton Blue and dates from 1982. It shows a white fuselage, the large ANA titles on the tail and blue accents; over the years it has been revised several times. The predecessor design “Mohican” with blue stripes has disappeared from the fleet. Why many airlines opt for a white fuselage is covered in the article Why aircraft are painted white.

ANA is known for its special liveries. The Pokémon jets have existed since the 1990s; after a pause, ANA put a 787-9 and a 777-300ER with Pokémon motifs back into service in 2023. These were joined by Star Wars jets, including a 787-9 in an R2-D2 design, jets with motifs from the anime series Demon Slayer, and several aircraft in Star Alliance colors. An overview of such motifs is given in the article Movie, comic and character liveries, and tips for the hunt in the guide Finding special liveries.

The group’s environment

ANA Holdings buys from Boeing and Airbus, with a clear Boeing focus on long-haul. There was a setback with the domestic regional jet: ANA was launch customer of the Mitsubishi SpaceJet, whose program was discontinued in 2023. The E190-E2 order now fills the gap in domestic service.

Besides its own subsidiaries, the group holds minority stakes, such as in Vietnam Airlines and Philippine Airlines. ANA has also long been a shareholder of Air Do from Hokkaido and works with regional airlines via codeshares. For your collection, these are independent operators with their own codes and liveries. For comparison, it is worth looking at other big groups such as Air France-KLM or the Cathay Group from Hong Kong.

Conclusion

For spotters, ANA Holdings is a group with many faces: the Dreamliner airline ANA in Triton Blue, the pink low-cost brand Peach, the feeders of ANA Wings and, since 2025, the jumbo freighters of Nippon Cargo Airlines. Several subsidiaries fly under ANA codes, so only a look at livery, callsign, type and registration leads to a clean attribution. In Germany you mainly meet the group in Frankfurt and Munich – the full variety awaits you at the observation decks in Tokyo and Osaka.