Need to travel between Tokyo-Haneda and Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido? There are no shortage of options. High-speed rail will complete the journey in roughly four hours, while flights take closer to 90 minutes.
Remarkably, Haneda-Sapporo is the second busiest air route in the world, boasting nearly 12 million seats in 2024. Considering that four airlines ply the route, of which three operate mostly widebody jets, I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised.
For today’s flight I chose Air Do because, as much as I love the Shinkansen bullet train, the airline is new to me. Also, it operates the venerable Boeing 767. While this aircraft type is increasingly out of favor elsewhere in the world, the jet is still quite popular in Japan and very easy to come by.
Air Do was founded 25 years ago as Hokkaido International Airlines, though it has primarily flown under the Air Do name. Its intention was to function as a low-cost competitor to ANA, JAL and JAS. That didn’t really pan out, since all three of the big players immediately matched its fares and pricing structure. Nonetheless, Air Do has managed to carve out a happy little existence with its Sapporo-based hub at New Chitose Airport.
Booking on Air Do’s website is a bit of an adventure, mostly because there are myriad fares from which to choose. And it isn’t very obvious, at least it wasn’t to me, what they are all about. (For the record, ANA and JAL have similar issues with domestic bookings.) After fifteen minutes of clicking through all the fare options, I settled on a low-mid tier fare that enabled day-of waitlisting.
Much like my immediately prior ANA flight, I was able to reserve a seat for several days without paying. Unlike ANA, I didn’t end up messing with repeated rebookings to save a few bucks, and decided that $94 was good enough.
Also, fun fact, Air Do codeshares with ANA. If you book the ticket via ANA you can earn Star Alliance points on Air Do flights.
Air Do does not have an app, but it does have online check-in on its website. As I had plenty of time at the airport I opted to check-in at the completely empty counter in Haneda’s Terminal 2 to secure a paper ticket. Security had a small and very fast-moving line.
Arriving at the gate, I saw we were posting a five minute delay. In the US this wouldn’t even be mentioned. In Japan, I heard at least three apologies. While waiting, a gate agent flagged me, asked for my name, and then escorted me to the counter. I wasn’t really sure what was happening, but they presented me with an adorable pack of Air Do stickers and postcards. Apparently they’d heard it was my first time flying with them. I have no idea how, but it was very nice of them.
Boarding began fifteen minutes before our new departure time with three separate boarding lanes. The doors were closed and the plane was ready for pushback in 12 minutes, though we sat for another ten minutes waiting for air traffic control to clear us off the gate. A 20-minute wait for takeoff led to a windy and rocky climb-out over Tokyo, before eventually settling into smoother air, north of the city.
Today’s seat was 32A, located midway up the back half of the jet. Air Do configures its Boeing 767-300s in an all-economy 2-3-2 layout for 288 seats in total.
A non-functional USB-A port was located below the seat.
An old-school, very well-worn controller was embedded into the armrest, which appeared to control audio channels, audio volume, overhead lighting and a flight attendant call button.
The existence of this controller was a bit confusing at first, as the seats have no seatback entertainment screens. Glancing around the cabin, though, I noticed a bunch of equally old-school CRT screens hanging from the ceiling above the aisle. For most of the flight the screens rotated between the inflight menu, Wi-Fi instructions, and multiple explicit warnings about not filming staff or passengers without their consent.
During takeoff and landing the screens switched to a live-view nose cam, which was obviously my favorite part.
The airline also offers stream-to-device wireless IFE content. A mini portal pipes several short films, documentaries, TV shows, audio selections and eBooks/magazines to passengers’ devices.
The portal also highlighted a small list of buy-on board retail items, though you have to flag down a flight attendant to make a purchase. I wound up going to the rear galley mid-flight to purchase a Hokkaido soup set in cash. At least one of the four little soups was onion flavored, reflecting one of the prides of Hokkaido.
The soup also happened to be one of the beverages offered on the flight! I enjoyed a cup of it onboard, along with some roasted green tea. The soup, though really it was more broth, was pretty good and definitely different.
It was such a nice gesture from the crew, and I love that appreciation of aviation is openly encouraged and celebrated in Japan.
The flight landed on time 70 minutes later, touching down in a windy Sapporo/New Chitose Airport.
A cool airplane, onion soup, and live-view nose cam made for a great experience with Air Do.
But the carrier’s extra personal touches, like the crew-signed card, and stickers at the gate and inflight, made it one I’ll remember fondly for a long time.
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All images credited to the author, Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren
