Asia is the home of most memorable aircraft special liveries. The latest addition to the list is the new set of 2 ANA Pokémon Celebratory Special liveries, coming in 2026.
In this post:
- ANA Celebrating 30 Years Of Pokémon Franchise
- Hard Product and Soft Product Pokémon Celebrations
- Maximizing PR Visibility With Two Older Planes
- Economy Getting More Special Items than Business Class?
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ANA Celebrating 30 Years Of Pokémon Franchise
The “excuse” for the latest ANA special livery comes from the Pokémon franchise.
2026 celebrates the 30th anniversary of the first launch of the Pokémon Game Boy games that kicked off the franchise’s history.
ANA is celebrating this Japanese pop culture phenomenon by applying special liveries to two of its Boeing 787 aircraft, registered:
| Registration | Aircraft Type | Livery Theme | Route Network | Age | Launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JA819A | Boeing 787-8 | Pokémon Red | Domestic | 13 years | End of July 2026 |
| JA823A | Boeing 787-8 | Pokémon Green | International | 12 years | September 18th 2026 |
The launch date is not that far out, with the first aircraft possibly going into special maintenance in mid-July to then enter service by the end of July.
The second aircraft, the Pokemon Green, which used for international travel, will enter service with its new paint on September 18th 2026.
Hard Product and Soft Product Pokémon Celebrations
The celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise will not end with the two new special liveries applied to the ANA Boeing 787s.
The airline is also applying some special touches to the soft product aboard these two planes.
On flights operated by these two aircraft, passengers will be served with limited edition Pokémon cups and napkins, and on their seats they will find Pokémon headrests.
I’m pretty sure these items will become collectibles, and aviation geeks and Pokémon enthusiasts alike will be hunting them down.
However, it is also noteworthy that the stock of these soft product items is not infinite. Once it runs out, the airline does reserve itself the right to serve passengers with the standard cups and napkins.
Maximizing PR Visibility With Two Older Planes
As you could see from the table above, these are mid-age aircraft. This new special livery and the soft product update on flights operated by this aircraft is a clever way of extracting more value out of these planes without actually doing any pricy retrofitting.
Agreed, repainting a whole aircraft in a special livery is expensive. However, the visibility that comes from this activity will pay itself off.
Aviation enthusiasts will be trying to book themselves on these aircraft. Additionally, these two striking special liveries will remain in people’s minds. Especially that green Pokémon livery, which will be traveling around the world, will be an itinerating advertising billboard for ANA.
Economy Getting More Special Items than Business Class?
I’ll wrap up the post with something that I thought was interesting. Somehow, economy class and premium economy will be getting a bit more out of this special livery and Pokémon-themed aircraft than business class passengers.
Business class will only be getting the special napkins and cups on international services or the Pokémon green livery.
Economy Class and Premium Economy, on the other hand, get also the one-time use headrest, which I’m sure that many passengers will take along with them once they get off the plane.
That will not be the case for business class passengers, which seems rather odd, because you would think that the highest paying passengers might get something more out of a special event compared to the economy and premium economy.