Japanese airline company All Nippon Airways Holdings (ANA HD) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Swiss industrial drone maker Wingtra AG, to explore the deployment of wide-area surveying and inspection services across Japan, utilising the drone company’s vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) fixed-wing aircraft.
In a statement, ANA said this partnership would bring to life the airliner’s Medium-term Corporate Strategy for the financial period covering 6026 until 2028, which targets the launch of commercial drone services by 2027.
“Through this collaboration, ANA HD aims to establish an advanced data observation service that combines its extensive aviation safety expertise with Wingtra's VTOL fixed-wing drone technology,” the company said.
“The partnership will enable efficient wide-area infrastructure inspections and rapid disaster assessments-tasks conventionally challenging for traditional drones.”
Feasibility tests for the Wingtra’s capabilities were carried out using the flagship Wingtra RAY drone on a project at Mount Unzen-Fugen (Mizunashi River) in Nagasaki, where the drone surveyed and inspected erosion control facilities as part of the city’s subsidy project.
In approximately 30 minutes, the Wingtra RAY surveyed about 150 hectares, which was impressive to the partners at it exceeded that of conventional rotary-wing drones.
The drone also captured high-precision survey data that enabled the detection of minute cracks and structural deformations in the facilities.
“The project validated a "phase-free model," where routine monitoring operations can also support disaster preparedness,” ANA said.
Following the successful demonstration, ANA said it was discussing a domestic sales agency agreement for Wingtra's latest drone, the WingtraRAY, while also evaluating the provision of drone flight operations services.
"We are thrilled to team up with Wingtra to scale our drone solutions across the surveying and inspection landscape," said Yoshiaki Tsuda, executive vice president of ANA HD. "Combining Wingtra's innovation with our airline expertise allows us to provide robust solutions for Japan's infrastructure monitoring and disaster response."
Beyond aircraft distribution, the company aims to develop a comprehensive support system covering aircraft deployment and operations, pilot training and aircraft maintenance.
The airline revealed that it was considering supporting the acquisition of "Class 1 Type Certification" – Japan's highest national safety standard for unmanned aircraft operations – which would accelerate the introduction of more advanced and extensive drone services, including future "Level 4" operations, enabling beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights over populated areas without visual observers.
"Japan represents a robust market with significant potential for industrial drone adoption, and we are eager to partner with ANA HD to accelerate this growth," said Karsten Robbins, vice president of sales at Wingtra.
"ANA's expertise in safety and operational excellence makes it the ideal partner to expand the use of our high-precision VTOL fixed-wing solutions across multiple industries."