New direct flights to Japan a major boost for the WA tourism industry
Perth Airport Chief Executive Officer Kevin Brown said working in partnership with tourism, businesses, exporters, and the Government to create new opportunities for Western Australia – the Team WA approach - has resulted in this exciting announcement.
“Providing a direct link between Japan and Western Australia will benefit the entire economy. It means more inbound tourists to WA and more business opportunities for our exporters.
“According to Tourism Research Australia, despite not currently having a direct service, Japan has become Perth’s ninth largest international visitor market with 28,700 Japanese visitors arriving into WA each year and spending $60 million.
“It is also estimated that just one new daily international direct service has the potential to create more than 600 new jobs in the WA economy,” Mr Brown said.
The introduction of the new service makes Perth only the second Australian city served by ANA, showing the airline’s commitment to the Western Australian tourism industry.
“Perth Airport looks forward to developing a strong partnership with All Nippon Airways (ANA) to ensure this route is a success for both the airline and Western Australia.
“We have seen extraordinary passenger growth between Japan and Perth last year totalling nearly 140,000 passengers.
“We expect these numbers to grow as we know that the introduction of direct flights creates a stimulus of approximately 40 per cent in the market, just because it’s easier for people to jump on those routes”.
“Western Australians currently make up 60 per cent of passengers travelling between Perth and Japan for both business and leisure purposes.
“This service will also make it easier for passengers to access the rest of Japan through ANA’s extensive domestic network and we expect the direct service will increase trade and business opportunities for companies in both countries,” Mr Brown continued.
The September launch will be just in time for the Rugby World Cup 2019, the third largest sporting event on the planet, and of course the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The launch also coincides with Shinju Matsuri, or Festival of the Pearl, a truly unique Broome experience and the start of the Wildflower season in Western Australia, which is also an extremely popular sight-seeing activity for Japanese visitors to Perth.
The airline will operate daily services between Tokyo Narita (NRT) and Perth (PER) on a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner which has a total of 184 seats including 32 business class seats, 14 premium economy seats and 138 economy seats.
ANA’s new daily Tokyo Narita – Perth service will depart Tokyo at 1110hrs to arrive in Perth at 2015hrs. The aircraft will then depart from Perth at 2145hrs, to arrive in Tokyo at 0825hrs
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