ANA plans Joint Venture with Lufthansa on Japan-Europe routes
Application filed to Japanese Government for Antitrust Immunity

TOKYO, February 23, 2011 - All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. (“ANA”) today filed an application with the Japanese Government for antitrust immunity to launch a joint venture with Lufthansa German Airlines (“Lufthansa”) on routes between Japan and Europe, allowing the two carriers to bring substantial benefits to passengers by creating a more efficient and comprehensive service across their networks.

Subject to approval of the application by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, ANA and Lufthansa will be able to jointly manage their Japan-Europe operations in areas such as scheduling, pricing and sales. This will give customers a greater choice of connections, a wider range of fare and service options.

“By forging this closer cooperation with one of our partner airlines in the Star Alliance, we will significantly enhance our ability to serve customers throughout Europe and offer new choice and convenience for passengers. We are looking forward to our application being approved,” said Shinichiro Ito, President and CEO of ANA.

“With today’s application for a joint venture, we are deepening our long-standing partnership with Star Alliance member ANA. This step comes on the heels of the 50th anniversary of the first Lufthansa flight to Japan and the 150th anniversary of the signing of the first German-Japanese treaty of friendship,” said Christoph Franz, Chairman of the Executive Board & Chief Executive Officer Deutsche Lufthansa AG. “The joint venture, which is subject to government approval, will send a good signal to our customers in Japan and Europe.”

 
About ANA
Established in 1952, ANA Group is a leading Japanese provider of air transport services, carrying almost 50 million passengers every year to 49 destinations in Japan and 28 cities throughout Asia, Europe and the US on its fleet of 228 aircraft. It is the world’s 10th largest airline by passenger load, according to IATA rankings, and is the largest domestic carrier in Japan. ANA has won awards in all categories for its products and services and was voted Airline of the Year for 2007 by Air Transport World Magazines. ANA is the launch customer of Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Mitsubishi Regional Jet. The airline joined the Star Alliance in 1999 and celebrated a decade of Alliance membership in October, 2009.
 
About Lufthansa
Deutsche Lufthansa AG is an Aviation Group comprising around 400 subsidiaries and affiliates. The Lufthansa Group is dedicated to quality and innovation, safety and reliability. Headquartered in Germany, the Group operates in five business segments - passenger transportation, logistics, MRO, catering and IT services. Passenger transportation is the Group’s core business: The airlines engaged in the passenger transportation business are Lufthansa (including Lufthansa Regional and Lufthansa Italia) Austrian Airlines, bmi, SWISS and Germanwings as well as stakeholdings in Brussels Airlines, JetBlue und SunExpress. In the 2009 business year, the airlines in the Lufthansa Group welcomed more than 76 million passengers on board their flights, making it Europe’s leading airline grouping. Operating through the Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, London-Heathrow, Brussels and Zurich hubs, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, bmi, Brussels Airlines and SWISS jointly serve 274 destinations in 104 countries on four continents. The Group fleet currently consists of more than 722 aircraft - on order are another 146, valued at a total of 13 billion euros at list price and scheduled for delivery between 2010 and 2016. With its ongoing expenditure in fleet renewal, the Group is consistently making the fleet more cost-efficient and its operations more environment-friendly. End of 2009 the Lufthansa Group employed around 118,000 people. In the 2009 business year, it returned revenues totalling 22.3 billion euros. More details at www.lufthansa.com.
 
Contact:
ANA Public Relations: Ryosei Nomura and Megumi Tezuka, TEL +81-3-6735-1111
Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Head of Corporate Communications Asia-Pacific (SIN CI): Frank Puettmann, Phone: +65 6835 5951
 
ANA plans Joint Venture with Lufthansa on Japan-Europe routes