The first flight operated by Japanese airline ANA between Brussels and Tokyo’s Narita airport took off on Sunday. The new service between Japan and Belgium represents the airline’s sixth European destination and will play an important role in ANA’s strategy of expanding its international presence and brand awareness in Europe.

On this route, ANA are particularly targeting pharma traffic using ANA’s PrioCool and PrioPharma services. The first flight was fully booked and comprised not only pharma shipments, but general cargo and Belgian chocolate as well.

FlyUs as ANA’s Cargo GSA becomes responsible for both sales and operations at the new online station and has already worked for ANA in an offline capacity since 2006. Operating with a B787-8 FlyUs believes they can expect to put approximately seven pallets of freight on each flight.

“Time and temperature sensitive products form a key part of all ANA’s long-haul, wide body routes and through a long-standing Master Lease Agreement (MLA) with Envirotainer the airline has an excellent reputation for handling this kind of traffic,” said ANA Cargo’s director global marketing & sales/alliance, Yutaka Terao. “We are confident FlyUs can add to our entire product range moving from Benelux on the Brussels-Narita route”.

A dedicated team of five has been set up by FlyUs to handle the ANA business as the team expects to receive shipments not only destined for Tokyo but for onward destinations such as Nagoya and Osaka but also its air and road feeder destinations within the ANA Japanese domestic network.

“In addition to that we are anticipating traffic for another 23 potential destinations in China and Southeast Asia as from December, ANA will fly on to Sydney which we believe will also be an important destination ex-Brussels,” added Terao.