ANA Launches Auction Of Old Aircraft Parts And Memorabilia

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All Nippon Airways (ANA) aircraft parts and memorabilia are going up for sale on a Japanese online auction site later this month. ANA calls the items one-of-a-kind parts and valuable airline goods. Delving through the PR guff, everything from small items like key rings to not so small items like first class suites, are up for bids.

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ANA is auctioning off aircraft parts and memorabilia later this month. Photo: Getty Images

ANA keeps busy selling off unwanted aircraft supplies & parts

Beginning September 21, SorANAka Yahoo! Auctions Store will start accepting bids. First up is an original ANA international first class mockup seat and a Boeing 777-300ER window frame. ANA calls it an “effective use of retired aircraft parts”.

Part of the profit from the auction will be donated to an external charity such as the Japanese Red Cross or Save the Children.

It isn’t the first time All Nippon Airways has monetized aircraft memorabilia. Earlier this year, the airline did a brisk trade flogging off bar carts. Despite weighing over 20 kilograms, ANA reportedly sold 220 surplus carts over a three-month period for around US$1000 each. One buyer described the bar carts as “very convenient and functional.”

“A lot of things can be put in a cart, which people usually see only onboard, and it would look nice by just placing it in a room,” an ANA flight attendant told Japanese media outlet The Mainichi.

Alas the ANA bar carts came empty. Last year, Qantas sold 1,000 former Boeing 747 bar carts in two hours. Also priced around US$1000, the Qantas bar carts were thoughtfully filled with 160 miniature wine bottles, two full-size bottles of champagne, and a decent supply of snacks to help soak it all up.

 

ANA makes a motza selling inflight meals

ANA has also sold some interesting gear from retired Boeing 767-300 aircraft. According to The Mainichi, this year ANA has sold four thrust levers priced at about $10,900, four control sticks priced between $6,800 and $7,300, nine cockpit ceiling panels for $2,000 each, and three sets of mock-up passenger seats for between $5,500 and $6,400 each.

All Nippon Airlines has also found success selling inflight food. In March, Simple Flying reported ANA had sold over 264,000 most economy class inflight meals, making $1.8 million in the process.

“Each time we place the meals on our online market site, they sell out within 45 minutes on average, an ANA spokesperson said at the time. “Some items were gone in five minutes.”

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A publicity photo of the inflight meals ANA sold US$1.8 million worth of earlier this year. Photo: ANA/A-style

A very regional phenomenon

Monetizing airline food is a particularly Asian shtick. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, Singapore Airlines, and THAI have all turned to it since the travel downturn. Cash-strapped airlines outside the region haven’t ventured down this road. Quite possibly that’s because the economy meal product on so many western legacy airlines is so awful they’d get laughed off the internet.
Indeed, not many airlines outside the Asia region have turned to these gimmicky style stunts to keep their regular passengers engaged. Gimmicky can be good. You’d have to figure there would be a few punters across the United States happy to shell out cash or points for a seat out of a retired AA aircraft, or perhaps a Delta branded cabin partition.
ANA fanboys and fangirls can find out all about the upcoming auction on the Yahoo Japan website.


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