Fabulous livery, flying a single route: the 'flying turtles' are the most exotic and rare A380s

They are called 'ANA Blue', 'Emerald Green' and 'Sunset Orange'. Are they perhaps the most exotic of the Airbus A380s in circulation (along with a pair of Emirates 'special livery') for the colorful liveries, as well as the rarest to see since they fly exclusively on one route (moreover, a long way from Europe): the Tokyo (Narita)-Honolulu.

They are the three Superjumbos supplied to All Nippon Airways, which the Japanese airline decided to purchase by taking over an order from Skymark Airlines, a low-cost airline also from Japan that intended to stuff Superjumbos with 800 single-class seats for use in the Japanese domestic and Asian regional markets. As has happened in other cases (Norwegian being the best known), Skymark was forced to scale back its ambitions, cancel the order for the A380 (and for other widebodies), ending up being, today, a modest low-cost company with about 30 Boeing 737-800s.

In January 2016, ANA confirmed that it was waiting for three brand-new A380s, which would be delivered to it starting in 2019 and would would christen 'Flying Honu,' where 'honu' is the word in the Hawaiian language for sea turtle.

The first to arrive in the fleet, in March 2019, was 'ANA Blue', then actually christened 'Flying Honu - Lani' (Blue Turtle), followed in May of the same year by 'Emerald Green' (aka 'Flying Honu - Kai', 'Green Turtle'). and, in October 2020 by 'Sunset Orange', 'Flying Honu - Ra' ('Turtle Orange').

The first two specimens made it in time to fly before the Covid pandemic broke out, while the third, delivered still in the midst of a pandemic by Far Eastern standards (Japan has kept its borders closed for nearly two years), Is actually parked until October 2021, Before actually joining the Japanese carrier's fleet.

The three A380s not only have the Custom livery to the point that it is difficult, at first glance, to associate it with All Nippon Airways and its standard colors. But also the interiors, which were designed for an average, rather wealthy clientele such as those traveling to Hawaii, which in Japan (as well as Korea, but not China) is an extremely popular destination for tourists and visitors.

Here, then, the four-class configuration, with 8 seats in First, 56 seats in Business and as many as 73 seats in Premium Economy on the upper deck, to which are added the 383 Economy seats (3-4-3) on the main (lower) one for a total capacity of 520 passengers.

First's 8 suites are of considerable size, as for personal space and in-flight entertainment: the seat in fact has a width of as much as 79cm, the seat turns into a 206cm long bed e IFE's screen measures 32 inches (one of the largest in the world). The 1-2-1 layout is the same as the 53 Business Class seats, while each row in Premium Economy is 2-3-2.

Overall, 25% of the available seats on board are 'premium'. Downstairs, Economy boasts a row spacing of 86 centimeters, making it, in essence, what so many companies christen 'Economy comfort'.

Such a product would depopulate on some of the 'premium' routes flown by ANA, such as those to London, Los Angeles, Sydney, and New York (while considering the fact that Haneda does not 'accept A380s due to operational issues and therefore ANA is 'forced' to use them from theNarita Airport, which is further from the city and is frequented by a more leisure and less 'premium' clientele). Instead, the Japanese carrier still continues to operate the three Superjumbos only on Honolulu, resulting in a very low utilization.

The connection between the two cities is not particularly long: we are around eight hours. So even with abundant turnaround, a single aircraft could nimbly support a daily operation. From which one would infer that ANA flies three times a day from Tokyo. Instead, consulting the schedule, one finds that. flights to Honolulu are only two per day, with the third A380 evidently being kept 'in reserve', ready to take over in case of technical or operational problems affecting the two 'twins'.

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