Joyride on Air Do Boeing 767-300ER : Part 1 HND-CTS

 Welcome to my part 1 of my Air Do's flying adventure! 

This is the Pokemon Rokon Jet livery. 

Introduction 

Flying with this airline has already been in my mind for a while and I decided to take a day trip to Sapporo from Tokyo Haneda just to fly on the airline's 767-300ER. That means my visit to the city will take place later and fortunately I would be visiting this city in August later this year. (2025) Flying with this airline allows me the chance to fly on the airline's Pokemon aircraft and the probability of that happening is one out of 4, pretty high odds right. So did I manage to score a ride on that beautiful aircraft, do read on to find out. 

Booking

Similar to Solaseed Air, you receiving your itinerary with your reservation number. You can use the information to access your booking for any admendment. What I love about flying with these airlines is there are no charges for seat assignment and you can confirm the itinerary a few days later, giving you the flexibility to make any changes during the grace period. 

Air Do has 2 aircraft types in the fleet, the Boeing 737-700 and the Boeing 767-300ER. These 2 types are considered to be quite rare these days especially in my region. I decided to go for both ways Boeing 767 just in a last minute aircraft change takes place and this gave me a better chance to fly on the airline's Pokemon aircraft. 

These are the flights I picked for this one day trip.

For this flight, I picked seat 12A which is located just in front of the wing and engine.

About Air Do

Air Do, formerly known as Hokkiado International Airline, is a Japanese regional airline based in Sapporo operates on selected routes from its hubs at Tokyo Haneda and New Chitose Airport. This airline works along with All Nippon Airways to give the Star Alliance airline more capacity to operate in some of the high demand routes. This airline was set up in November 1996 and started operation about 2 years later. Currently operating a fleet of 8 Boeing 737-700 and 4 Boeing 767-300ER and one of the 767s features the special Vulpix Pokemon livery.

On the day of departure 

Honestly speaking, the location of my accommodation is far from ideal as I had to walk about 15 minutes to the bus station and catch the airport bus to the airport and that took about 45 minutes.

Welcome to Tokyo Haneda Terminal 2! 

This is the Air Do's check in counter. I tried to change my flight to HD19 as it was operated by the Pokemon jet but unfortunately, my ticket which I paid at a promotional fee, doesn't allowed me to change for free and I had to fork out a whopping 30,000 yen to do so. So JA607A, until next time! 

The interior of HND Terminal 2

There are plenty of shops and restaurants at the landside and the airport WiFi is available.

There is an aviation gallery and observation deck located at the higher level, do look out for the signboard.

The history of Japanese aviation including the uniforms of the airlines and the airports.

I spent a bit of time doing some planespotting.

This is Solaseed Air's Pokemon livery. (JA803X)

You can see who dominate this terminal.

ANA Boeing 767-300ER and JAL Airbus A350-900

ANA Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner

The double bridge jetway

This is how an observation deck in Japan airport looks like.

More photos of the gallery

There are also seats for resting.

When you go through the boarding pass screening machine, you will receive a receipt of your flight details as shown below.

This is the airside of the departure hall.

What caught my attention is the codeshare flights (gate 57).

Walking from the main concourse to the pier may take sometime, do remember to keep track of the time.

Airport lounges and restaurants are available.

This is the Pokemon plane (HD19) getting ready for departure to CTS.

The seating area with limited number of charging ports.

I picked up a cup of iced coffee at Tully's. 

I did a check on Flightradar24 and JA613A gets the honour to fly me to Sapporo.

The view of the tarmac while waiting for my aircraft to arrive.

Solaseed Air Boeing 737-800

Air Do's Boeing 767-300ER has 2 different liveries of Vulpix on each side of the aircraft.

The right side

The left side

At this point, my aircraft was on final approach.

Here comes my ride! 

This is the airline's corperate livery. I find it simple but attractive.

I received another paper slip from the check-in staff prior to boarding.

JA613A , here I come! 

Welcome on board! 

My ride: JA613A 

Boeing 767-381ER

Configuratuon: Y 288

Engines: 2 X GE CF6-80C2B6F

Delivered in March 2019

924th Boeing 767

Age: 20+ years old

Built in Everett (PAE)

Flight route: HND-CTS

Miles: 509

My seat: 12A (seatmap.com) 

Date of departure: 27th November 2024

Airline: Air Do

Flight: AD 21

Flight Route: HND-CTS

Terminal: 2

Aircraft: Boeing 767-300ER

Registration: JA613A

Seat: 12A

Gate: 54

Load: 100%

Schedule Departure: 1115

Boarding: 1110

Push Back: 1129

Take Off: 1141

Flight Time: 1 hr 20 mins

Actual Flight Time: 1 hr 16 mins

Schedule Arrival: 1245

Actual Arrival: 1255

Departure Runway: 16L

Departure Weather: Clear

Arrival Runway: 01R 

Arrival Weather: Clear 

My flight experience

My aircraft arrived about 3 minutes late and had around 35 minutes to prepare for the next flight, that is certainly a challenge for a wide-body aircraft. Not a surprise that my flight ended up departing late. We boarded the aircraft 5 mins before the schedule departure time and took off 26 minutes later. Announcement were made by the crew but only in Japanese so I had no clue what was being said.

The beautiful 767 interior and what is more important is the seat comfort makes this an enjoyable experience flying on this classic Boeing 767-300ER without the winglets. As these aircraft are operating on short domestic flights, winglets are not necessary although they are an advantage to the airline if they are used on medium to long haul routes as they help to reduce the fuel burn per hour, helping the airline save some money as a result. 

Anyway, back on board. There are overhead screens which are used for safety video demonstration and also display the exterior view (from the landing gear). During the flight, the in-flight map was shown. Online streaming was available on your own device and inflight beverages were served. I chose the hot onion soup and it was absolutely delicious. 

For the flight itself, it was a great day for flying and it was a smooth ride to Sapporo. Although we made up for loss time, we landed late at our destination as we were placed on a holding pattern due to heavy traffic near the destination airport. The extra 14 minutes of flying time was not a bad thing especially flying on this beautiful aircraft. 

Economy Class cabin 

This aircraft is configured in a one-class Economy class with a total of 288 seats. The 2-3-2 configuration is the standard for most 767 operators and for each seat excluding the first row and emergency rows, has a legroom space of around 31 inches and every seat has a width of 18 inches and can recline up to 3 inches.

I like the seat design and they are certainly comfortable to sit on.

This ex ANA aircraft features the Boeing 777 style cabin which makes the cabin more spacious.

Can you spot a windowless seat? 

Since this aircraft is deployed on short and high demand routes, IFE screen is not neccessary.

I find these seats more comfy than some of the latest seats in the aviation seat industry.

Legroom space is good.

This is my seat, 12A

More photos of the seat 

There are 2 windows at my seat.

Another Air Do's 767 being prepared for departure.

The USB charging port on my side is located near the foot of the left side of the seat.

The legroom space

The seat remote control for audio entertainment.

View from my seat.

    

What’s provided for each passenger? 

Inflight magazine

Safety Card

Disposal Bag

A cup of beverage of my choice.

 A nice warm cup of onion soup.

Inflight Entertainment 

Inflight Wifi (Streaming only)

Once the online streaming is available, here are the options for you to check out.

The shows available are only in Japanese.

Japanese inflight magazines (digital copy)

The options menu

Inflight sales

Choices of beverages

Inflight map

As you can see, we were slightly delayed in arrival. 

Window view (Take off to Landing)

Just pushed back on this beautiful day.

We taxied towards runway 16L.

Rolling down the runway.

Off we go, it was a typical powerful 767 take off. 

Flying past runway 23/05. 

The lovely view of Tokyo. 

What more can you ask for? Such beautiful weather on this day. 

The city of Tokyo 

After flying for sometime, there were clouds below us and at this point, we started our descent. 

Unlike the weather in Tokyo, it was gloomy at our destination.

On final approach into Sapparo's New Chitose Airport! 

We have to fly over the city before landing at the airport. 

Arrival into CTS airport was a smooth affair. 

We touched down on runway 01R. 

Taxi to our gate took around 10 minutes. 

We parked besides fellow company's Boeing 737-700 which was bound for Tokyo Haneda. 

My flight summary 

Welcome to Sapporo Airport! 

This is my 2nd visit to this airport.

The view outside the airport.

The main concourse

Lots of shops and restaurants to check out, more on this in my part 2.

Hope you enjoy this trip report.

My ratings 

Airline Website: 3/5 

Airport Experience (HND): 5/5 

Inflight Service: 5/5

Seat Comfort: 5/5

Inflight Entertainment: 3/5

Cabin Ambiance: 5/5

Seat Condition: 5/5 

Cleanliness: 5/5 

Inflight Beverage: 4/5

Punctuality: 3/5 

Overall Rating: 45/50

Percentage: 90%

Conclusion 

Although I missed out on the Pokemon jet by one flight, I enjoyed my time on the standard livery Boeing 767-300ER. I find the 767 cabin to be quite comfortable and adding the typical Japanese service from the cabin crew, that makes the experience even better. With competition heating up among the airlines, these airlines have make their products quite competitive, adding online streaming for entertainment and choices of beverages for the passengers and although these Boeing 767 are quite old, the interior certainly doesn't look its age as it is obvious that the management has put in lots of effort in maintaining the these classic aircraft. How long more will these 767-300ER and 737-700 continue to operate for this airline, we have no idea but if you have a chance to fly on one, do take it. The new generation aircraft will be around for quite a while! Anyway do check out my summary of my flight experience with Air Do in my part 2, coming up soon.

 

For my previous trip report (Japan Airlines A350 Class J experience), click here

Coming up next: My EVA Air's Boeing 787-10 Y class experience! 

Thanks for reading! 

Cheers, 

Charles 

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