ANA to Say Goodbye to R2-D2 Star Wars Livery on Boeing 787, Last Flight August 6

JA873A’s final flight with the livery will be flight NH101 from Dulles to Tokyo on August 6. I’m confused about the airline’s X post regarding its retirement.

All Nippon Airways will be saying farewell to its beloved R2-D2 Star Wars jet this week. The aircraft is JA873A, a Boeing 787-9. This aircraft has been operating long-haul flights from Tokyo to the US and Europe.

The final flight will be on August 6, ANA flight NH101 from Washington Dulles to Tokyo Haneda, departing at 12:15 and arriving at 15:20 on August 7. Note that this could change (it has already changed once).

The aircraft began revenue service on October 18, 2015. ANA has another aircraft with a Star Wars livery right now, JA743A. That aircraft, too, will move on from its livery in January.

ANA made an announcement on X, and other social media accounts:

I was really puzzled by this farewell announcement on X. I (and many others) had assumed that the airline was just going to get rid of the livery and repaint it into something else, but they made it sound like the aircraft itself was going into retirement.

“After its final flight with us, the aircraft will begin the standard retirement process.”

What!? The aircraft has been in service for just 9 years, and it’s crazy to think that they’d retire any widebody at that age. Moreover, the airline has yet to retire a single Boeing 787, aside from two 787-8s transferred to its low-cost subsidiary Air Japan.

I thought about the possibility that they’d be transferring this one to Air Japan, but this R2-D2 jet is a 787-9. Air Japan currently only has 787-8s scheduled to be transferred to them, as far as I know. So that doesn’t add up.

Ultimately, I think this aircraft still has a future with ANA. The same X post added that they’re “…unable to share details about its next chapter,” suggesting that this isn’t JA873A’s end after all. I just can’t imagine they’d go ahead and retire a 9 year old Boeing 787.

Maybe I’m reading too much into an airline’s X post.

Featured image by the author.

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