Since 1998, a small handful of Pocket Monster themed airplanes have flown in the ANA fleet. The current iteration, the only remaining Pokémon plane, recently took its final flight.
Sankei News and Pokémon Memo report that the Boeing 777-300 Pokémon Jet, the last of its kind, made its closing trip on April 14 as part of the Kumamoto earthquake relief effort. The plane then went into maintenance and its Pokémon coating was removed.
All the other five generations of Pokémon Jets had previously been retired. According to Sankei, the planes were put out to pasture due to poor fuel consumption. This seems to be an age issue as these were older planes. For example, even though the last Pokémon Jet only debuted in 2011, the aircraft is seventeen years old.
There are current plans for a new Pokémon Jet, Sankei adds, but don’t be surprised if ANA eventually covers a more fuel efficient jet in Pocket Monster.
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