Air Nippon

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This article is about an airline, for the Egyptian hieroglyphic character see Ankh.

Air Nippon Co., Ltd. (エアーニッポン株式会社, Eā Nippon Kabushiki-gaisha^?), or ANK, is a regional airline based in Tokyo, Japan. A fully-owned subsidiary of All Nippon Airways (ANA), it mainly operates short routes and flights to isolated islands in support of ANA's domestic services, as well as international flights to Taiwan.

1 Code data
2 History
3 Services
4 Fleet
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Code data

In April 2004, Air Nippon adopted ANA flight codes and numbers for all domestic services, but its previous codes remain in use on Taiwan flights only:

IATA Code: EL
ICAO Code: ANK
Callsign: Ank Air ^[1]

[edit] History

The company was founded by ANA, Japan Air Lines and TOA Domestic as Nippon Kinkyori Kōkū (日本近距離航空, Nippon Kinkyori Kōkū^? lit. Japan Short-Distance Airline) in March 1974 and started operations on 10 October 1974. The name Air Nippon was adopted in 1987, and the abbreviation ANK comes from the full, somewhat redundant name Air Nippon Kōkū (lit. Air Nippon Airline).

As part of ANA's reorganisation, Air Nippon's domestic operations are being consolidated into the main airline. ANA and Air Nippon used different liveries and IATA codes on domestic flights until April 2004, when Air Nippon adopted ANA livery and ANA flight numbers. As an ANA subsidiary, it is considered a full Star Alliance member. However, on Taiwan flights Air Nippon's IATA code EL is still used due to political reasons and these flights are not considered being Star Alliance flights.

Air Nippon Network (2001-2005) formerly operated Air Nippon's turboprop routes from Tokyo, Osaka and Sapporo. These routes have now been re-integrated into the main airline and the label retired.