ANA Holdings has announced a change at the top for the group, plus a new chief for the airline.
Koji Shibata, Senior Executive Vice President and Member of the Board, will succeed Shinya Katanozaka as President and CEO of ANA Holdings from April 1, 2022 while Katanozaka will take over from Shinichiro Ito as Chairman of ANA Holdings on the same date.
Shinichi Inoue, Senior Executive Vice President and Member of the Board of All Nippon Airways (ANA), will succeed Yuji Hirako as President and CEO of ANA from April 1, 2022, while Hirako will become Vice Chairman of ANA Holdings on the same date.
Yuji Hirako, appointed President and CEO of ANA in April 2017, and who led ANA to record operating profits during his tenure, has commented that the Japanese government has to ease its strict border controls, which have shut out the country to foreigners, to save the economy and the aviation industry.
“There are various problems happening with the situation that foreigners can’t enter Japan,” Hirako, said in an interview, reported by Bloomberg. “I hope for eased border controls for the sake of the Japanese economy.”
“Once the border control is relaxed, we will see more demand for business flights again,” Hirako said.
“The key is when passenger demand for international flights comes back.
“It’s important to have an exchange of information by seeing people face-to-face at an international conference,” he said. “It not only applies to the aviation industry, but to all kinds of businesses.”
New CEO Shinichi Inoue joined ANA in 1990, beginning his career at the company in the personnel department. Since then, he has held multiple sales and marketing positions, with a stint in Beijing as well. Notably, he set up Japan's first low-cost carrier, Peach Aviation in 2011, and served as the CEO until 2020 when he became Senior Executive VP of ANA. He currently serves as the President of ANAX, while leading the ANA Sales and Marketing division.