ANA Holdings - Company History

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Financial history 1958–2026 — revenue, cost structure, balance sheet, cash flow and key ratios, year by year →

Founded 1952
Founder Midoro Masaichi
Founding location 東京都
Core business at founding Air transport with two helicopters
Listed 1961
President Shibata Koji President since 2022 (age 69, as of 2026)
Current priority Capital efficiency · M&A Doubling the price-to-book ratio and bringing Nippon Cargo Airlines into the group
Founding
In December 1952 Japan Helicopter Transport was established in Tokyo with capital of $416,667 (¥150m) and two helicopters. Its first president was Midoro Masaichi, who came from the Asahi Shimbun; the company began trading with helicopters in February 1953 and entered freight transport between Tokyo and Osaka that December. In November 1955 it introduced the Douglas DC-3 and moved to fixed-wing passenger service, in December 1957 it was renamed All Nippon Airways, and in March 1958 it merged with Far East Airlines to reach capital of $1.7M (¥600m). In October 1961 it listed on the second sections of the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges and secured the money for new aircraft. As a late-comer chasing a Japan Air Lines that had started earlier on government capital, it put its resources into the domestic trunk routes rather than the low-yield local ones.
The Decision
ANA filled the thirty-three years that regulation had closed off not with a network of its own but with partnerships. Under the 45/47 system, which gave Japan Air Lines a monopoly of international flying, ANA was confined to the domestic market, and scheduled international service had to wait until the Tokyo–Guam route of March 1986. It had no capacity to put its own aircraft across the world alone, and in October 1999 it joined Star Alliance and cleared out its loss-making businesses. The failure of Japan Air Lines in 2010 and the opening of the skies then turned it from dependence on domestic demand towards international expansion, and it widened its network with the Boeing 787 and with joint ventures alongside the large American and European carriers. In April 2013 it moved to a holding-company structure as ANA Holdings, keeping the full-service airline and the low-cost carriers side by side as separate companies. The domestic trunk routes it had thickened while regulation kept it out of international flying are what still carry the connecting traffic, whether for the alliance or for the low-cost brands.
Today
Of the four businesses ranged under the holding company, air transportation produces 96 per cent of the profit. In the year to March 2026 consolidated revenue was $16.1B (¥2.54tn), operating profit $1.4B (¥217bn) and profit attributable to owners of the parent $1.1B (¥169bn). Segment profit was $1.4B (¥222bn) for air transportation, against $48.1M (¥8bn) for trade and retail, $9.5M (¥2bn) for airline related businesses and a loss of $632,271 (¥100m) for travel services. When COVID sank revenue 63 per cent to $6.6B (¥729bn) in the year to March 2021, with an operating loss of $4.2B (¥465bn), the company chose to rebuild under its own power, with subordinated loans and a share offering of up to $3.1B (¥332bn). In April 2017 it took control of the independent Peach Aviation for $271M (¥30bn), and in October 2019 it absorbed Vanilla Air to bring its low-cost flying under the single Peach brand. In August 2025 it acquired all the shares of Nippon Cargo Airlines, laying freighter rates over earnings that swing with the passenger cycle.
Competition
Having taken the independents into the group one by one, ANA now meets fewer airlines in the domestic market. When Skymark, founded in 1996 as a third force, failed in 2015, ANA beat Delta Air Lines in the contest to rescue it and became the sponsor of its rehabilitation, drawing Haneda slots and code-shares into its own camp. In 2010 it entered low-cost flying through a separate company held apart from the ANA brand, aiming at once to capture inbound demand and to defend the main airline. The competition that remains is on the ground: in the Tokyo–Osaka corridor the Tokaido Shinkansen of Central Japan Railway, which concentrated its resources on making the Nozomi faster and more frequent, carries more than eight in ten of the passengers. While a post-bankruptcy Japan Air Lines was held back from new investment under its rehabilitation plan, ANA stacked up slots and aircraft to build the largest fleet in the domestic market.

Timeline

1952–1970Two helicopters, and the making of a full domestic airline

  1. 1952Japan Helicopter Transport founded with two Bell 47D-1 helicopters
  2. 1953Trading begins; licence for scheduled air transport obtained
  3. 1953Freight service starts between Tokyo and Osaka
  4. 1955Douglas DC-3 introduced; move to fixed-wing passenger service
  5. 1957Renamed All Nippon Airways
  6. 1958Merger with Far East Airlines; capital raised to ¥600m
  7. 1960Vickers Viscount 744 brought in from Britain
  8. 1961Lists on the second sections of the Tokyo and Osaka exchanges
  9. 1963Fujita Airlines absorbed; capital raised to ¥4.65bn
  10. 1965Boeing 727 enters service
  11. 1966Flight 60 crashes into Tokyo Bay; all 133 aboard are killed
  12. 1969Boeing 737 enters service
  13. 1970Wakasa Tokuji becomes president

1970–1986The 45/47 wall, and a 33-year wait for scheduled international flights

  1. 1970Cabinet understanding creates the 45/47 system
  2. 1971Non-scheduled international flights begin, Tokyo–Hong Kong
  3. 1972Transport minister’s directive fixes the 45/47 allocation
  4. 1972Moves up to the first sections of the Tokyo and Osaka exchanges
  5. 1973Lockheed L-1011 introduced
  6. 1974Nihon Kinkyori Airways (later Air Nippon) established
  7. 1974Memorandum signed with transport minister Kimura Muneo
  8. 1976Lockheed scandal surfaces; Wakasa is implicated
  9. 1977Shinkansen competition brings on “the pinch in the sky”
  10. 1978Nippon Cargo Airlines founded; Boeing 747 introduced
  11. 1983Boeing 767 introduced
  12. 1985NCA flies Narita–New York; cabinet opens international routes
  13. 1986Scheduled international service begins, Tokyo–Guam

1986–2010International expansion, Star Alliance, and an age of demand shocks

  1. 1986Guam service opens the international network
  2. 1989ANA Building lists on the second section of the Osaka exchange
  3. 1990World Air Network (later Air Japan) established
  4. 1995Boeing 777 introduced for long-haul routes
  5. 1997Consolidated revenue passes ¥1 trillion
  6. 1998Dividend passed for the first time in thirty years
  7. 1999Joins Star Alliance; “selection and concentration” plan
  8. 2001Air Nippon Network (later ANA Wings) established
  9. 2002Ohashi Yoji opposes the JAL–JAS integration
  10. 2003Four travel companies merged into ANA Sales & Tours
  11. 2005Withdraws from Nippon Cargo Airlines and sells its shares
  12. 2007Fourteen hotel subsidiaries sold out of the group
  13. 2009Ito Shinichiro becomes president; first net loss in six years
  14. 2010Japan Air Lines fails; Haneda slot split favours ANA

2010–2025Under a holding company: expansion, COVID, and a financial rebuild

  1. 2010Group airlines merged into ANA Wings; entry into low-cost flying announced
  2. 2011AirAsia Japan established; world’s first commercial Boeing 787 flight
  3. 2013Renamed ANA Holdings; flying spun off to All Nippon Airways
  4. 2013AirAsia stake bought out; relaunched as Vanilla Air
  5. 2015Katanozaka Shinya becomes president; sponsors Skymark’s rehabilitation
  6. 2016Three Airbus A380s announced for Hawaii routes
  7. 2017Peach Aviation consolidated for ¥30.4bn
  8. 2018Integration of Peach and Vanilla Air announced
  9. 2019A380 introduced; low-cost flying unified under Peach; revenue passes ¥2tn
  10. 2020¥400bn subordinated loans; share offering of up to ¥332.1bn
  11. 2021Record operating loss of ¥464.8bn; fleet cut from 309 to 276
  12. 2022Shibata Koji becomes president
  13. 2023Returns to profit and restores the dividend; agrees to buy back NCA
  14. 2024AirJapan launched as a third brand; operating profit passes ¥200bn
  15. 2025Nippon Cargo Airlines becomes a wholly owned subsidiary

Founding Story

1952–1970Two helicopters, and the making of a full domestic airline

All Nippon Airways began in December 1952 as Japan Helicopter Transport, a company with $416,667 (¥150m) of capital and two Bell 47D-1 helicopters, and within eighteen years it had merged twice, listed its shares and converted a trunk-route network to jets. The engine behind that speed was a late-comer’s rivalry with a state-backed Japan Air Lines — and the period closed with the worst single-aircraft accident in the world to that date, which made the recovery of trust, rather than of capacity, the management problem.

Post-war aviation restarts — from two helicopters to a full airline

In December 1952, with the aim of reviving the scheduled air transport business that the Second World War had destroyed in Japan, Japan Helicopter Transport Co., Ltd. was established with capital of $416,667 (¥150m)[1]. It bought two small Bell 47D-1 helicopters, began trading in February 1953 with publicity flights[2], obtained its licence for scheduled air transport in October of that year, and from December set out carrying freight between Tokyo and Osaka[3]. In November 1955 it introduced the Douglas DC-3[4] and moved to fixed-wing passenger service, and in December 1957 it changed its name to All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd.[5] The early helicopters were also put to work patrolling power transmission lines and spraying chemicals for farming and forestry[6], and those earnings covered the losses of the fixed-wing passenger operation flown by de Havilland Doves and Herons.

In March 1958 ANA merged with Far East Airlines Co., Ltd., unifying under new capital of $1.7M (¥600m)[7] a scheduled air business that had been split between east and west. Both predecessors — Japan Helicopter Transport and Far East Airlines — were thinly capitalised carriers thrown up in the crowd of the recovery years, and the inefficiency of two companies flying piecemeal routes across a small country[8] had been seen as a problem early on. The Aviation Council’s report of December 1954 replaced the standing two-carrier policy with a single-carrier policy, and the government pressed hard for the two to merge[9]. After the merger ANA gathered its resources onto the trunk routes centred on Tokyo–Osaka, and in November 1963 it absorbed Fujita Airlines Co., Ltd., raising capital to $12.9M (¥5bn)[10]. Revenue grew from $1.9M (¥700m) in the year to March 1958 to $37.5M (¥14bn) in the year to March 1965[11].

“Catch up, overtake” — a late-comer’s rivalry with JAL

What drove the conversion from helicopter operator into full airline was rivalry with Japan Air Lines, which had started earlier and with government capital[12]. The gap in capability had earned the two predecessor companies mockery — Japan Helicopter Transport as 日本ヘリクツター, a pun turning “helicopter” into “quibbler”, and Far East Airlines as 極道航空, “gangster airlines”[13] — and ANA set out as a late-comer taking on a rival with large aircraft while flying small ones. The motto of the first president, Midoro Masaichi (美土路昌一), destitute now, promising later, and the slogan that arose of its own accord among the staff, catch up, overtake[14], turned that sense of inferiority into forward momentum. At the board meeting of 25 October 1957 the new name was settled at first as 全日本航空 (All Japan Airlines)[15], but in November it was sent back on the grounds that “All Japan” would give the impression of a company equal to or above Japan Air Lines and risked a conflict; taking in the view of Far East Airlines’ president Kanno Wataro as well, the choice came to rest on 全日本空輸 — All Nippon Airways[16].

The difficulty over the name extended to the English form. At the same board meeting of 25 October 1957 both “Pan Japan Airlines” and “All Japan Airlines” were put forward as candidates, and the former, which had the greater support, was chosen[17]. The moment it was reported, however, an American, A. C. King, wrote in to say that “Pan” means running through the Americas from north to south, and for “all of Japan” the accurate form is All Japan; the company also sought judgements from Yamamoto Tsuri, a lecturer at Meiji University, and from Assistant Professor Nakamura of the University of the Arts[18]. The conclusion was that there was no need to use “Japan” at all, since “Nippon” was understood worldwide — and the name came to rest as All Nippon Airways[19]. On the ground, staff passed down the story of a driver who found himself instinctively overtaking a JAL bus running ahead of him on the Daini Keihin highway[20]; “catch up, overtake” took root not as a slogan hung on a wall but as the feeling of the daily job.

Turning to jets, and the ordeal of 1966

In October 1961 ANA listed on the second sections of the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges[21], opening a way to raise the money for new aircraft from the capital market. Following the Vickers Viscount 744 brought in from Britain in July 1960[22], it put the Fokker Friendship F-27 and the Viscount 828 into service in June 1961[23] and the Boeing 727 in March 1965[24], beginning the conversion from propeller aircraft to jets. The Viscounts raised capacity on the trunk routes, Tokyo–Osaka above all, and in May 1969 the Boeing 737 joined them[25]. Revenue grew from $6.7M (¥2bn) in the year to March 1961 to $109.4M (¥39bn) in the year to March 1970 — sixteenfold in a decade[26].

Growth was not smooth. On 4 February 1966 ANA Flight 60 from Chitose to Haneda, a Boeing 727, crashed into Tokyo Bay while on its landing approach, and all 133 passengers and crew were killed[27]. It was at the time the worst single-aircraft accident anywhere in the world, and 1966 was a year of successive major accidents in Japanese aviation[28]. Revenue fell from $47.2M (¥17bn) in the year to March 1966 to $45.3M (¥16bn) in the year to March 1967[29], and restoring trust became the management task even while jets were still raising capacity. The man who took charge of putting the company back together from around the time of the accident was Wakasa Tokuji (若狭得治), brought in as an adviser from the post of vice-minister of transport in 1969 and made president the following year[30].

1970–1986The 45/47 wall, and a 33-year wait for scheduled international flights

In 1970 a cabinet understanding, confirmed by a transport minister’s directive in 1972, wrote ANA’s confinement into policy: the 45/47 system reserved scheduled international routes for Japan Air Lines and left ANA a domestic-only airline. For fifteen years it held wide-bodies and crews it was not allowed to send abroad, watched a ministerial memorandum promising future entry collapse into the Lockheed scandal, and reached the world at last in 1986 — through a freight affiliate, and in its thirty-third year.

Wakasa takes charge, and the wall called the 45/47 system

The “45/47 system”, established by a cabinet understanding in 1970 and a transport minister’s directive in 1972, was a regulation assigning international and domestic trunk routes to Japan Air Lines, domestic trunk and local routes to ANA, and local routes to Toa Domestic Airlines[31]. ANA began operating non-scheduled international flights between Tokyo and Hong Kong in February 1971[32], but was not permitted to enter scheduled service. In March 1974 it set up Nihon Kinkyori Airways to carry the local routes[33], and spread its network inside the domestic market it had been allotted. The condition of holding aircraft with more than 300 seats and trained pilots while being unable to carry them abroad lasted fifteen years, until the Tokyo–Guam route opened in March 1986[34].

Even under the regulation, the domestic business went on growing in scale. In August 1972 ANA moved up to the first sections of the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges[35], and it took delivery of wide-bodies of more than 300 seats in quick succession — the Lockheed L-1011 in December 1973 and the Boeing 747 in 1978[36]. Revenue grew fivefold, from $209.7M (¥65bn) in the year to March 1972 to $1.4B (¥308bn) in the year to March 1980[37]. The Tokyo–Osaka route that had been its main earner, however, lost passengers sharply to the national railways’ Shinkansen, and by 1977 the aviation industry had been driven into what was called “the pinch in the sky”[38]. Holding wide-bodies of over 300 seats and the crews to fly them, ANA could not put them onto scheduled international routes under the 45/47 system[39].

The phantom memorandum and Lockheed — falling one step short

A crack came close to opening in the wall around scheduled international service in the mid-1970s. When the Japan–China aviation agreement of 1974 shut Japan Air Lines out of Taiwan, ANA applied for five routes to succeed it, among them Tokyo–Taipei–Hong Kong[40]. President Wakasa Tokuji withdrew the application after five days, and in exchange signed a memorandum with transport minister Kimura Muneo stating that ANA possesses the capability to operate scheduled international routes and will, in the near future, make efforts in that direction through the proper procedures[41]. A former vice-minister of transport with thick pipes into politics and business, Wakasa held a gravitational pull inside the company that earned him the nickname “the Godfather”[42], and it was in negotiation with the regulator that he was at his best.

The promise in the memorandum was not kept. About seven months after it was signed the Lockheed scandal surfaced, and Wakasa himself was implicated in the corruption over ANA’s choice of wide-bodied aircraft[43]. With the head of the company arrested and prosecuted, the talk of scheduled international service resting on the memorandum was left hanging, and entry receded by nearly another decade[44]. Even so the staff went on supporting Wakasa — a course in contrast with Marubeni and the Grumman affair, where those involved were denounced by their own firms and left[45]. Domestic expansion continued after the scandal as well, and revenue grew 2.3 times, from $633.2M (¥185bn) in the year to March 1976 to $1.8B (¥422bn) in the year to March 1983[46].

NCA as the black ship, and international flights in the 33rd year

What actually broke the wall was freight, not passengers. Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA), the all-freight carrier ANA had set up with the shipping companies in 1978[47], flew its first service from Narita to New York, via San Francisco, on 8 May 1985 after hard negotiation[48]. ANA held only 10 per cent of it, but 142 of NCA’s 262 staff had been sent across on secondment or transfer, making it a subsidiary in substance[49] — and it opened a hole with freighters in the international business Japan Air Lines had monopolised. In the Japan–US aviation talks the American side used NCA as a “hostage” to press for route expansion[50], and that pressure became ANA’s foothold for entering scheduled international service. ANA itself introduced the Boeing 767 in June 1983[51], and revenue in the year to March 1985 had reached $1.9B (¥453bn)[52].

In November 1985 the Nakasone cabinet released international routes from Japan Air Lines’ effective monopoly and set out a shift to a multiple-carrier system permitting other airlines to fly them[53]. In March 1986 ANA began scheduled international service between Tokyo and Guam[54], entering the multi-carrier international order in its thirty-third year from founding. It was the moment when a late-comer that had been called “the giant of the East” while confined to domestic flying went out into the world on the Narita–Guam route[55]. Nakamura Taizo, then president, described the strategy this way: People often ask me which routes ANA intends to fly. I answer that I am going to do this worldwide[56], rejecting a staged plan limited to Asia.

Read the full history in Japanese →

Notes

  1. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  2. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  3. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  4. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  5. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  6. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  7. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  8. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  9. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  10. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  11. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  12. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  13. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  14. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  15. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  16. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  17. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  18. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  19. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  20. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  21. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  22. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  23. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  24. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  25. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  26. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  27. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  28. Twenty Years Towards the Sky 大空へ二十年, All Nippon Airways, 1972↩
  29. All Nippon Airways Company Yearbook 全日本空輸 会社年鑑, 1976 edition↩
  30. Nikkei Business, 8 July 1985↩
  31. Ministry of Transport — cabinet understanding and transport minister’s directive on the aviation constitution, the 45/47 system↩
  32. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  33. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  34. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  35. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  36. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  37. All Nippon Airways Company Yearbook 全日本空輸 会社年鑑, 1986 edition↩
  38. Nikkei Business, 12 September 1977↩
  39. Ministry of Transport — cabinet understanding and transport minister’s directive on the aviation constitution, the 45/47 system↩
  40. Nikkei Business, 8 July 1985↩
  41. Nikkei Business, 8 July 1985↩
  42. Nikkei Business, 8 July 1985↩
  43. Nikkei Business, 8 July 1985↩
  44. Nikkei Business, 8 July 1985↩
  45. Nikkei Business, 8 July 1985↩
  46. All Nippon Airways Company Yearbook 全日本空輸 会社年鑑, 1986 edition↩
  47. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  48. Nikkei Business, 8 July 1985↩
  49. Nikkei Business, 8 July 1985↩
  50. Nikkei Business, 8 July 1985↩
  51. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  52. All Nippon Airways Company Yearbook 全日本空輸 会社年鑑, 1986 edition↩
  53. Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 17 November 1985↩
  54. ANA Holdings, annual securities report, corporate-history section↩
  55. Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, 3 March 1986↩
  56. Nikkei Business, 8 December 1986 — editor-in-chief interview with Nakamura Taizo, president of All Nippon Airways↩

References & sources

  1. All Nippon Airways (Twenty Years Towards the Sky, All Nippon Airways, 1972); annual securities reports, including the corporate-history section.
  2. Nikkei Business (Nikkei BP): 12 Sep 1977, on the failure to overcome resentment of the outsider; 8 Jul 1985, on the memorandum with the transport minister; 8 Dec 1986.
  3. Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei Inc.): 17 Nov 1985, on the shift to a multiple-carrier international system; 5 Jan 2010, on Haneda slots being allotted more heavily to ANA than to Japan Air Lines; 27 Apr 2016, on ANA overtaking Japan Air Lines in international passengers. Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, 3 Mar 1986, on ANA moving from the greenhouse into a competitive world.

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