ANA Partners with EF Education First

LONDON, April 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --



All Nippon Airways (ANA) and EF Education First (EF) have announced the signing of a partnership agreement today. This partnership will see EF, the world leader in language training, provide English learning via its cloud-based school to enhance the ability of ANA employees, including cabin attendants, to succeed in the global business environment.

In its recently released medium-term corporate strategy for FY2014-2016, ANA announced plans to increase the productivity of its international passenger operations by 45 percent. ANA will be accelerating improvements to its service quality, including the skills of its cabin attendants, as well as the development of personnel who can contribute to its global expansion.

ANA was recently awarded the prestigious 5-Star Airline ranking by Skytrax for the second year in a row. The award recognized ANA for the consistently high quality of its airport and cabin services and for the service enhancements that it has implemented to better cater to the needs of international passengers.

Osamu Shinobe, President and CEO of ANA, comments:

"As a full service carrier that is aiming to become the world's leading airline, we want to further enhance the level of service that is provided by our employees. EF has an excellent track record in providing quality language training programs and this partnership will boost our improvement efforts. I have high expectations that this partnership will lead to even better services for our customers."

EF is internationally established and known for its most recent success as the official language training supplier to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. The partnership between EF with ANA has resulted in a training program consisting of tailored learning modules and more than 2000 hours of study content, as well as unlimited access to English teacher-led virtual conversation classes.

Peter Burman, President of EF Education First, comments: "We are extremely proud to partner with ANA and support them in reaching their English goals. Our Industry-specific expertise makes us well-suited to deliver the necessary customized training to ANA and we are looking forward to starting the training and seeing outstanding results."

About ANA
All Nippon Airways (ANA) is the ninth largest airline in the world by revenues (2012) and the largest in Japan by passenger numbers (2012). Founded in 1952, ANA flies to 31 international and 50 domestic destinations with a fleet of 232 aircraft that serves a network of 175 routes. The company has 14,000 employees. In 2012, it carried 45 million passengers and generated revenues of $15.8 billion. ANA has been a core member of Star Alliance since 1999 and has joint-ventures with United Airlines on trans-Pacific routes and with Lufthansa, Swiss International Airlines, and Austrian Airlines on Japan-Europe routes. Its Frequent Flyer Program, ANA Mileage Club, has more than 24 million members. ANA was voted Airline of the Year for 2013 by Air Transport World, and was awarded five stars by the world's leading airline and airport review site, Skytrax. ANA is the launch customer and biggest operator of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

About EF Education First 

EF Education First (EF) is the world's leading international education company which focuses on language, academics, and cultural experience. Established in 1965 with a mission to open the world through education, EF (http://www.ef.com) has more than 500 schools and offices worldwide. Thousands of companies and millions of students have learned a new language or traveled abroad with EF. Each year, EF publishes the English Proficiency Index (http://www.ef.com/epi) measuring the English ability of adults in countries across the world.

For media enquires please contact:

Susan Nilsson, Director of Communications, susan.nilsson@ef.com, Tel: +44(0)74-3269-2538

SOURCE EF Education First