March 22, 2022

ANA is promoting Universal MaaS so that people with disabilities, the elderly, foreign visitors to Japan, and others who are afraid of getting around for some reasons can enjoy comfortable and stress-free travel.

MaaS stands for "Mobility as a Service," which means that transportation by various means (trains, buses, taxies, etc.) as well as airplanes is considered as a one-service, and everything from route search to payment is connected seamlessly beyond the boundaries of transportation operators.

For example, let's say you are traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto. You have searched for a route to your destination and decided to take a flight to Osaka and a taxi from Osaka to Kyoto. You make reservations and payments for each transportation, such as trains, airplanes, buses, and taxies, that will take you from your home to your destination.

In addition, those who need assistance due to disabilities or other reasons also inform the respective transportation operators of their requests for assistance. Some foreign visitors to Japan have difficulty understanding Japanese and are stressed by the procedures for each transportation system.

Universal MaaS is an initiative aimed at smooth and comfortable travel, focusing on people with disabilities, the elderly, foreign visitors to Japan, and others who are afraid to travel for whatever reason.

Launched in 2018 as an idea of an ANA Group employee, the Universal MaaS initiatives are making steady progress with the help of numerous partners.

One of the initiatives is a traveling assistance service for wheelchair users "Arrangement for seamless assistance".

With the customers' consent, the necessary information for assistance registered at the time of reservation of ANA airline tickets will be linked to the system with the joint companies. This will reduce the burden on customers to make assistance requests to each transportation operators, while enabling operators to smoothly collect the assistance information needed by customers.

Also, the "Arrangement for seamless assistance" screen seen by the customer is linked in real time to the transportation operators' flight/traffic information, allowing the customers to know the occurrence of delays and early arrivals.

The traveling assistance service for wheelchair users "Arrangement for seamless assistance" was selected for the "Japanese Version MaaS Promotion and Support Project" by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in FY2021, and ANA conducted a verification experiment for social implementation from February 3, 2022 to February 28, 2022, in collaboration with East Japan Railway Company ("JR East"), TOKYO MONORAIL CO., LTD. ("Tokyo Monorail") and MK Co.,Ltd. ("MK Taxi").

In the verification experiment, monitored customers will enter the necessary information for assistance when making airline ticket reservations through the ANA website, and travel routes using JR East, Tokyo Monorail, and MK Taxi will be set up to match the reserved flights. By sharing the necessary information for assistance with each transportation operators in advance, the participants experienced the ability to make arrangements all at once without having to contact each company. On the day of the trip, participants boarded public transportation along a set route. The transportation operators provide assistance to the monitored customers, knowing in advance the route, time, and assistance information for boarding.

"As a person with a disability, I have always felt the inconvenience of traveling by public transportation, and I was excited to see the attempts to solve this problem together with the operators."

"I felt that the public transportation service system would become a network to support travel, with assistance and support information being communicated in advance and linked to the necessary contacts."

In addition to the evaluation of the service, the following comments were also given.

"It is important that everyone has a choice, and I hope that a system will be built that allows people to enjoy services that meet their individual needs."

We interviewed Mr. Osawa and Ms. Kuroiwa (Mobility As A Service Corporate Planning, ANA), who are in charge of Universal MaaS, about the path to the verification experiment and future prospects.

What is the story behind the creation of the "Arrangement for seamless assistance"?

What difficulties did you face in reaching the verification experiment?

What is your vision for the future?

ANA will continue to work with customers to realize the ''world where no one gives up on travel'', across corporate, organizational, and industrial boundaries.