All Nippon Airways (ANA) today announced the new nonstop service between Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) and Narita International Airport (NRT) in Tokyo will start January 11, 2013. (ANA announced in 2011 that the flight was coming, but did not commit to a firm start date until now.) The inaugural flight will bring the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft to the Bay Area. Good news: ANA is a partner in the Star Alliance, so United MileagePlus members will be able to earn and burn miles on the route.
The new flight will depart San Jose at 11:45 a.m. and arrive in Tokyo at 4:10 p.m the next day. The return flight will leave Tokyo at 5:35 p.m. and arrive at SJC at 10:10 that morning. The service is expected to start with five flights per week, excluding Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The afternoon arrival in Tokyo is timed to allow connections to destinations throughout Asia, including Beijing, Hong Kong,Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Delhi, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Bangkok, and Manila. The new route will be available for booking August 30.
ANA will use its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on the Tokyo Narita-San Jose route. Built mainly from carbon fiber composite material, the 787 features increased fuel efficiency and passenger comfort– with larger windows, better cabin pressure and larger overhead bins. ANA was the launch customer of the 787, ordering 55 of the aircraft in 2004 and taking delivery of the inaugural aircraft this year.
American Airlines operated a Tokyo-San Jose route from 1990 to 2006.
Would you use SJC instead of SFO for your flights to Tokyo? Is a chance to fly the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner enough to get you to switch? Please leave your comments below!
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It is good ANA will be flying from SJC with their new 787 but as a South Bay flyer, I will still go to SFO for their ANA flight.The reason for this is their SJC flight will not have first class. Their flight from SFO, on a larger 77W, has a first class cabin. We will see if this flight last. I hear the Seattle flight is going out half full.
It’s not just you! Flights out of SFO enjoy what many call “The Virgin Effect.” When Virgin America blew into town in 2007 with low fares from SFO that were matched by other carriers, it sucked business away from Oakland and San Jose where airlines were not as likely to match Virgin’s fares. As a result, OAK and SJC have had a net loss of flights and seats while SFO is breaking boarding records.
I took the AA flight to Narita in 2003. It was empty enough that I had 4 seats in the middle to sleep in cattle car. However, when we arrived too early on the return, no immigration officers were available — there were so few international flights that folks drove from SFO to process us. We had to camp out in the hallway outside immigration for over an hour while they battled morning traffic. Not. fun.
Our passport stamp was SFR, which I assume stands for SF Region(al airports)? Either way, now that I’m a DL Platinum, no ANA flights for me 🙁
But is it me, or do SJC flights cost more than SFO in general? Used to fly out of there all the time in the early 2000s. Just landed there last night for the first time since the new construction and felt like an ant in the crazy oversized terminal.
Hey All: I’ll be on KCBS discussing this at about 12:25 pm today. Tune in if you can! — chris.
for sure! I just started checking other bay area airports when I noticed that Oakland had better first class fares to Hawaii than San Francisco.
I live a mile from SJC, but no flights go where I need to be.
I am Star Alliance Gold, so I fly United.
I would never go to SFO if there were adequate flights down here.