In an effort to innovate and provide a new customer experience, Japan's largest airline, All Nippon Airways (ANA), together with its subsidiary ANA Neo, launched an aviation-themed non-fungible tokens (NFTs) marketplace on May 30. The platform, titled “ANA GranWhale NFT Marketplace”, goes beyond the boundaries of the traditional, opening up new horizons in the world of cryptocurrencies.
the debut of platform was marked by the first collection of NFTs, digital aviation photographs taken by renowned aerial photographer Luke Ozawa. Platform developers revealed: “One of the photos will be sold together with a positive film, which is the basis for developing the images. The price is set at 100.000 yen and the NFT with the positive film will be sold at auction.”
The second collection, scheduled to launch on June 7th, will be represented by the NFT image of the first Boeing 787 operated by ANA. ANA reported: “They will be sold as a 3D airplane model. There are 787 items of each of the two types, totaling 1.574 items, priced at 7.870 yen each.”
ANA, with annual revenue of $12,2 billion in the last fiscal year, said it has plans to expand the NFT product line in the future. The company sees potential in improving the customer experience through trading NFTs.
ANA Neo's GranWhale project, which began last August, aims to combine technology, including Virtual Reality (VR), to recreate destinations and cultures around the world in the form of metaverse parks. Mitsuo Tomita, president of ANA Neo, emphasized the importance of merging the virtual and real worlds, indicating that this combination symbolizes the ANA GranWhale's flight towards a future where Web 3.0 and metaverse travel will be commonplace.
The purchase of NFTs can be made using a credit card. In addition to ANA, three other partners will sell NFT products, with plans to expand the product line in the future. Intending to market NFT products from all over Japan, ANA intends to enhance the value of the customer experience both locally and internationally through the “GranWhale NFT Marketplace”.
