ANA to serve in-flight halal meals to Muslim passengers

ANA Holdings announces that it has entered an agreement with Brahim's Holdings Berhad, the world's largest provider of in-flight halal meals, to exchange skills and expertise in Japanese and halal cookery.

There are approximately 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, more than 20% of the world's population, and demand between Japan and Islamic countries is projected to increase.

ANA's Catering Service Company (ANAC) is therefore working with Brahim's to achieve an official halal certification in order to improve the quality and selection of halal meals on-board its own flights and to increase supply of halal meals to third-party airline carriers.

ANAC currently provides in-flight meals to 11 non-Group airlines which fly from Narita and Haneda Airports.

By developing high-quality in-flight halal menu options ANAC will have the potential to secure a greater number of third-party catering contracts, particularly from Islamic airlines, increasing revenue for catering.

This is in-line with ANA Holdings' medium-term Corporate Strategy to diversify and grow revenue streams from outside the Group.

Additionally, with non-Japanese passenger demand expected to increase, as a result of greater tourism to Japan and ANA's on-going international expansion strategy, this partnership will enable ANA to meet the differing needs of its own customers.

As part of the partnership, Brahim's will benefit from the technical guidance of ANAC's chefs in order to produce traditional Japanese washoku cuisine.

Washoku cuisine was recently added to the UNESCO cultural heritage list.

As well as developing Japanese in-flight meals, Brahim's will develop washoku products for sale in Islamic countries.

The first washoku product planned by Brahim's is an original Japanese-style curry.

Tsukasa Kuniya, Vice President in charge of Group Business Development at ANA commented: "We see a significant opportunity to grow revenues through the supply of in-flight meals to third-party airlines and by capitalising on non-Japanese passenger demand. We are delighted to be working with Brahim's to develop a premium, certified halal menu in order to provide greater choice to customers.