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Nippon Airship's "Zeppelin NT" Starts Ferry Flight to Japan

June 18, 2004

Nippon Airship Corporation (capital: Yen 340 million, president: Hiroyuki Watanabe), in which NYK has a 59% stake, has taken delivery of a "Zeppelin NT"-type airship - the world's largest airship now in operation - from Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH in Friedrichishafen, Germany.

A press conference was held in the evening of June 17 (local time) at an airport in Chavenay, a suburb of Paris, which was attended by Nobuteru Ishihara, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and some 100 reporters from Japan and other countries and regions.

An onsite tour was given as well to allow participants to actually go onboard the airship.

They highly rated the comfortableness of the cabin; the operation system, which employs cutting-edge technologies and a view from the windows that ensures excellent visibility for passengers.

The airship, which has started a ferry flight to Japan, is scheduled to arrive in Moscow on July 18 after visiting various European countries and then make a month-long flight across Russia, arriving in Japan late in August.

The airship's eastbound travel will be a historic flight that will follow - for the first time in 75 years - much the same course across Siberia as that taken by Graf Zeppelin during her round-the-world flight in 1929. The airship will travel to Ishikari Bay New Port in Hokkaido, Japan by way of such cities as Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

During the ferry flight, the airship will be dubbed "YOKOSO! JAPAN" and cooperate in publicizing three major events in Japan - "Visit Japan Campaign," "Deutschland in Japan 2005/2006" and "2005 World Exposition, Aichi, Japan."

Moreover, during her European cruise, the airship will cooperate in the ongoing joint filming project of Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) and the UNESCO to make a digital archive of the World Heritage sites.

Upon her arrival in Japan, Nippon Airship Corporation will take out a business license for the new airship to make commercial flights, such as a publicity flight for the 2005 World Exposition, Aichi, Japan.

NYK, which will greet the 120th anniversary of its founding next year, decided last year to invest in Nippon Airship Corporation, which was established to undertake ambitious business using an airship against the backdrop of the open sky. Henceforth, NYK intends to continue to develop the airship business with a view to providing air cruise and other services in the sky.