TOKYO – Travellers flying into Japan from Singapore will soon enjoy better access to off-the-beaten-track destinations across the archipelago.

This comes as Singapore Airlines (SIA) signed a joint venture agreement with Japan’s largest carrier, All Nippon Airways (ANA), on April 17 in a deal that has been more than five years in the making, with plans first announced in January 2020.

Both airlines will pool their resources together to achieve more efficient route planning, as they coordinate flight schedules, seat capacity and fares for flights between Singapore and Japan. ANA services 61 domestic airports in Japan, from Nemuro-Nakashibetsu in north-eastern Hokkaido to Ishigaki in south-western Okinawa.

SIA and ANA will sell “joint-fare tickets” under a revenue-sharing arrangement. What this means for travellers are shorter layovers and better-value fares, given that flights from both airlines can be combined in a single itinerary.

These tickets will go on sale from May, with the first flights under the joint venture to take off in September.

“When you operate medium-haul flights (using) wide-body planes, it is not commercially viable for us to operate to all the smaller airports in Japan (given the thinner traffic),” SIA chief executive Goh Choon Phong told The Straits Times on the sidelines of a media conference at the ANA Blue Base facility in Tokyo.

“Partnering with a pre-eminent carrier like ANA makes sense, because our customers can seamlessly connect to all these destinations,” he added.

The joint venture comes as inbound travel to Japan continues to break records. The Japan National Tourism Organisation said on April 16 that 10.5 million travellers visited the country between January and March 2025, up 23.1 per cent from the same period in 2024. Among them were 153,300 visitors from Singapore, up 16 per cent year on year.

The tourism body also observed that Singapore visitors were venturing outside the key nodes of Tokyo and Osaka. Okinawa, Yamaguchi, Fukuoka, Saga and Gifu prefectures registered the fastest growth in the number of nights stayed in 2024, compared with 2023 figures.

Meanwhile, the joint venture will allow residents in regional areas serviced by ANA domestic flights to enjoy better connectivity to Singapore...