Vietnam Airlines-ANA advance Japan joint venture plan

By Tom Whitfield

Vietnam Airlines and ANA Holdings plan to seek regulatory approval for a joint venture on routes between Vietnam and Japan, putting revenue sharing, fares, seat inventory and schedules into a common operating framework after 10 years of cooperation.

Vietnam’s top leader attended a ceremony at noon local time during an official visit to Japan, marking the decade since the carriers signed their strategic cooperation agreement in Tokyo in May 2016. Two months later, ANA Holdings became a strategic shareholder in Vietnam Airlines.

A decade of commercial integration

The partnership has developed well beyond its initial codeshare arrangement. Vietnam Airlines and ANA Holdings have linked their frequent-flyer programs, coordinated product development, and joined their sales and marketing work. Their partnership network has expanded, making connections between destinations in Vietnam and Japan easier for passengers.

As of October, Vietnam Airlines operated 11 direct routes between the two countries, with 72 flights per week. Demand on the Japanese market has also grown: in the first nine months of 2026, the airline carried 18% more passengers in Japan, while passenger revenue rose 26% year over year.

Those figures provide a commercial base for deeper coordination. The two airlines are not announcing a new route network at the ceremony; they are proposing to manage several commercial levers jointly across existing services.

What the joint venture would put under one roof

Under a framework agreement on joint-venture cooperation, Vietnam Airlines and ANA Holdings plan to:

• Share revenue and coordinate flight schedules and fares on routes between the two countries.
• Coordinate seat-inventory management, sales, marketing and passenger services.
• Develop products covering booking, connecting flights and access to frequent-flyer benefits.
• Use their respective networks and resources more efficiently.

The arrangements remain subject to approval by the competent authorities. If approved, the airlines will have a stronger incentive to present a coordinated schedule, fare and seat proposition on shared routes rather than manage each aspect independently.

For passengers, the practical change would center on a more integrated journey: coordinated schedules and inventory, easier connections and common access to loyalty benefits. For carriers, the mechanism is straightforward. Revenue sharing and joint management reduce the risk that one airline discounts heavily or leaves capacity unsold while the other sells the same seats.

What does this change for shippers and forwarders?

The immediate freight effect is limited. The joint-venture framework lists passenger-facing commercial functions, while cargo appears in the airlines’ wider exchanges on aircraft operations, maintenance and repair, personnel training, ground services, in-flight catering and cargo transportation. The announcement provides no cargo-capacity allocation, tonnage target, equipment commitment or airfreight rate.

For shippers and freight forwarders, therefore, the announcement does not justify changing routing, contracting or rate assumptions. Stronger Japan-Vietnam connectivity can support expanded trade, tourism and people-to-people movement, but the source does not convert that broader economic effect into a specific uplift in cargo space or a new freight product.

The technical relationship may still matter over time. Vietnam Airlines and ANA Holdings have extended their technical-support agreement and will consider broader work in technology, digital transformation, data management and operational-system optimization. Those areas could eventually affect service planning and execution, although the announcement does not tie them to a cargo-technology deployment schedule.

ANA Holdings will also contribute experience in corporate governance, operations and service-quality management. Vietnam Airlines expects that support to sharpen its procedures, strengthen workforce capabilities and improve consistency throughout the passenger journey.

That work forms part of Vietnam Airlines’ product plan and its ambition to obtain a five-star rating from international air-transport assessor Skytrax by 2030.

The proposed joint venture marks a new stage in a relationship built first on strategic shareholding and codeshare services. The next milestones are approval from the relevant authorities, implementation of the commercial coordination and decisions on wider technology cooperation; until then, the plan offers no committed cargo capacity, rate or equipment change for shippers.