Nanpo no Kido - Southern Airways / Koko Southern
Based at Nintoku International Airport (Kumoi) Nanpo no Kido -also known or colloquially called Na-no-ki, Souther Airways or Koko Southern- is currently Koko's second largest carrier. Nanpo started flying in 1975, serving regional routes from and to Kumoi, Chiyuki, Yokokawa, Chiyoko and Kaminato with a small fleet of used Namc-YS-11 bought from Koutei Koku. The first jet service started in 1978 with the introduction of the first Boeing 737-200, allowing to add Minatogawa, Hoshiguma and Toumachi to the network. By the second half of the 80s, with a dozen aircrafts in its fleet, the airline had gained its small share by filling some voids left in the network by giants like Koko Airways and Koutei Koku. Nanpo planes were easily recognizable thanks to their colourful red, blue and gold striped paintscheme (top to bottom) that waved up towards the tail (itself topped by the Kanji
Nan, meaning South). The airline first significant expansion came in the early 90's when the airline bought and leased some 767-200 and -300s to strenghten its position in the Kumoi-Hoshiguma and Kumoi-Toumachi routes, which allowed to free some of the 737-200s to fly to newer destinations. A new livery was introduced with the arrival of the 767s: the red-blue-gold stripes were not separated by white stripes between them but were now contigous, the blue one went up the vertical stabilizer becoming the dominant color over the red. The stripes remained parallel on the fuselage, but the paintsheme got thinner as it ended in a pointed shape just below the cockpit windows. The 1990s decade also saw the introduction of the 737-400, which eventually offset and augmented the retirement of both the Namc-YS-11 and B737-200, making Nanpo the first all-jet airline in the Country. Nanpo also started to take advantage of the setbacks suffered by Koko Airways to expand its domestic network: in 1998 the 767-300ER was introduced to replace the leased 767-200 and -300s, then in 2002, Nanpo inaugurated its first international service when its planes started to fly between Kumoi and Haneda (Tokyo). The 737-800 followed in 2005 as the airline started to expand more agressively on the domestic market. When Koko Airways collapsed and went out of business in 2007 it left a large deficit of unfilled demand in the market, something that Nanpo's CEO would not want to miss obtaining. This meant going against both a monster like Koutei Koku (whose share on the domestic market rose from 54 to 65% in the days following KOAs shutdown) and emerging low-cost airlines like Jump! and Skyline. Given Nanpo well-positive cash flow it was decided it was worth to try tackle both: In 2008 the airline reinvented itself by giving low-cost service on domestic routes and premium on international flights. The livery was revised as well with a wavy gold line separating the white top and front of the planes to the two-tone blue tails and underbelly. The red disappearing entierely. In addition to that, although the official airline name still remains Nanpo no Kido, the western denomination was modified from
Southern Airways to
Koko Southern, as to avoid naming confusion with airlines like China Southern and to give a more international feel to the airline image. The commercial move succeded and revenue further increased, allowing to double the fleet size during the next six years. More 737-800s were ordered while retirement of the -400s started. The larger 737-900ER debuted in 2014. The same year the airline also took delivery of the Airbus A330-300, which offset the retirement of the remaining 767s on both the domestic and international market, which saw the addition of a new route to Kansai airport (Osaka). Latest additions to the even faster growing fleet had been both the A350-900 and the behemoth A380-800 which debuted in 2017, replacing the A330s on international routes. Given its florid economic status, Nanpo no Kido plans to start international service to Seoul, Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris in the next few years. The airline is also evaluating its next narrowbody order to further expand domestic service once the current backlog of 737NGs is emptied, with the order possibly to come during the singapore airsow in february 2018: Machines considered are Boeing 737-MAXs, Airbus A320Neos or doomestic EAC-150s, with rumors saying that the airline choice might befell for the latter.
Currently, Nanpo no kido operates a fleet of 74 aircrafts and serves 35 domestic and two international destinations.
Operated aircrafts:
Namc-YS-11 (1975-1997)
B-737-200 (1978-2002)
B-767-300 (1990-2003)
B-767-200 (1993-2004)
B-737-400 (1994-on, 4 in service)
B-767-300ER (1998-2015)
B-737-800 (2005-on, 35 in service)
A-330-300 (2014-on 14 in service)
B-737-900ER (2014-on, 17 in service)
A-350-900 (2017-on, 3 in service)
A-380-800 (2017-on, 1 in service)