ANA is also the wholly-owned shareholder in Peach, a low-cost carrier joint venture with Hong Kong company First Eastern Investment Group.

[10] Nippon Helicopter was the source of what would later be ANA's International Air Transport Association (IATA) airline code, NH.

Passenger service on the same route began on 1 February 1954, and was upgraded to a de Havilland Heron in March.

[12] In 1955, Douglas DC-3s began flying for NH as well,[10] by which time the airline's route network extended from northern Kyūshū to Sapporo.

[14] Although it was founded on 26 December 1952, one day before Nippon Helicopter, it did not begin operations until 20 January 1954, when it began night cargo runs between Osaka and Tokyo, also using a de Havilland Dove.

It adopted the DC-3 in early 1957, by which point its route network extended through southern Japan from Tokyo to Kagoshima.

The combined companies had a total market capitalization of 600 million yen, and the result of the merger was Japan's largest private airline.

[10] The merged airline received a new Japanese name (全日本空輸; Zen Nippon Kūyu; All Japan Air Transport).

[15] ANA also introduced Japan's first homegrown turboprop airliner, the NAMC YS-11 in 1965, replacing Convair 440s on local routes.

[10] As ANA grew, it started to contract travel companies across Japan to handle ground services in each region.

[14] While ANA's domestic operations grew, the Ministry of Transport had granted government-owned JAL a monopoly on international scheduled flights[10] that lasted until 1986.

[18] ANA bought its first widebody aircraft, six Lockheed L-1011s, in November 1971, following a lengthy sales effort by Lockheed which had involved negotiations between US president Richard Nixon, Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka and UK prime minister Edward Heath (lobbying in favor of engine maker Rolls-Royce).

Tanaka also pressed Japanese regulators to permit ANA to operate on Asia routes as part of the package.

[22] On 3 March 1986, ANA started scheduled international flights with a passenger service from Tokyo to Guam.

ANA expanded its international services gradually: to Beijing, Dalian, Hong Kong and Sydney in 1987; to Seoul in 1988; to London and Saipan in 1989; to Paris in 1990 and to New York and Singapore in 1991.

[30] In 2005, ANA renamed NAL to Air Central, and relocated its headquarters to Chūbu Centrair International Airport.

[31] On 12 July 2005, ANA reached a deal with NYK to sell its 27.6% share in Nippon Cargo Airlines, a joint venture formed between the two companies in 1987.

In 2009, ANA announced plans to test an idea as part of the airline's "e-flight" campaign, encouraging passengers on select flights to visit the airport restroom before they board.

[39] ANA Holdings Inc. was created in April 2013 due to the "changing landscape of the airline industry", with competition against low cost carriers cited as one of the reasons.

The 767 freighters also operate daytime flights from Narita and Kansai to various destinations in East and Southeast Asia.

[59][60] ANA also has a long historical relationship with Nippon Cargo Airlines, a Narita-based operator of Boeing 747 freighters.

[61] ANA announced in July 2013 that it would charter NCA's 747 freighter aircraft for an overnight cargo run between Narita and Okinawa, doubling capacity between ANA's key cargo hubs and freeing up 767 aircraft to operate new routes from Okinawa to Nagoya and Qingdao.

[63][65] ANA has an extensive domestic route network that covers the entirety of Japan, from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south.

ANA's international route network extends through China, Korea, India, Southeast Asia, Canada, United States, Mexico, Australia, and Western Europe.

[87] Deliveries finally began in late 2011 when ANA received its first Boeing 787 on 21 September, the first-ever Dreamliner to be delivered in the world.

Despite being second, the airline preceded launch customer Air New Zealand for the first commercial flight on the 787-9, a special sightseeing charter for Japanese and American school children on 4 August.

Many ANA aircraft have operated in special liveries through the years: Introduced in 2009, the "Inspiration of Japan" cabin features included fully-lie-flat-bed business class seats, nearly enclosed first class suite seats, fixed shell back seats in both of its economy classes, a new AVOD in-flight entertainment system (based on Panasonic Avionics Corporation's eX2 IFE system with iPod connectivity, in-seat shopping and meal ordering as well as cabin touchscreen consoles) as well as improvements to its in-flight service.

[126] ANA's inflight magazine is named Wingspan and is available both on board and as a freely downloadable application for Apple's iPad.

The iPad version is named Virtual Airport and includes content from Wingspan as well as links to airline booking and online check-in pages.