On July 18, All Nippon Airways (ANA) started seasonal service (July – September) for an Asahikawa – Haneda flight. This is the first service for that flight in 18 years.

According to “ANA Akindo”, the company that handles airline ticket sales, a coronavirus pandemic related downtick in international flights has left planes unused, so the plan is to use those planes to cover domestic flights for a forecasted domestic flight demand increase. The only new additional flight for Hokkaido will be the Asahikawa – Haneda service. The ANA flight is one round trip per day, and adding that to an existing Air Do codeshare flight will facilitate four round trips between Asahikawa and Haneda per day total.

The first-day flight arrived at Asahikawa Airport from Haneda Airport 15 minutes late at approximately 4:50 p.m. Asahikawa Airport Building staff along with Asahikawa and Higashikagura municipal staff passed out signature Asahikawa souvenir sweets and other items to the 50 passengers upon arrival. To the 148 passengers boarding the 5:25 p.m. Asahikawa Airport to Haneda Airport flight, the staff then passed out magnets made with materials leftover from producing Asahikawa furniture. Approximately 20 staffers from the Asahikawa Airport Building then went out onto the tarmac and saw the passengers off, waving goodbye.