ANA joins budget-airline booking group

ANA airline group has become a new member of what has been billed as the world's largest low-cost carrier alliance. The inclusion of ANA's full-service airline and its budget carrier subsidiary Vanilla Air into the Value Alliance (VA) was made possible after parent ANA Holdings took a 15% stake in Air Black Box Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, a joint venture founded by Singapore's long-haul low-cost carrier Scoot, Thailand's Nok Air and VaultPAD Ventures. The latter provides cloud-based airline passenger software platforms, which are instrumental to VA's move to connect diverse member airlines and cooperate in business. The entry of ANA Holdings into VA strengthens the alliance's footprint. It also represents the first time VA has embraced a full-service airline, as the group had previously consisted entirely of no-frills operators. ANA Holdings' admission to alliance also comes as Philippines-based budget airline group Cebu Air acquired a 15% stake in the joint venture, according to Nok Air executives. Together with ANA group, VA now includes Scoot, Nok Air, NokScoot, Tigerair Singapore, Tigerair Australia, Cebu Pacific, Cebgo, Jeju Air, Vanilla Air and ANA. <br/>