Japan's largest airline had an entire fleet of Pokémon Boeing 747 jets and the details stretched far beyond the livery
Published on Feb 23, 2026 at 8:23 AM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson
Last updated on Feb 19, 2026 at 9:58 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
In Japan’s largest airline, there’s an entire fleet of Pokémon Boeing 747 jets – and this theme runs deeper than just the livery.
First unveiled back in 1998 at the height of the Pokémon craze, these designs initially adorned two planes belonging to All Nippon Airways.
In total, 151 characters from the anime were featured on the exterior of the planes.
The first two planes proved popular, so more were added to the fleet over the following years.
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These Pokémon Boeing 747 planes have to be seen to be believed
If you were around in the 1990s, you will likely remember Pokémon mania.
The trading cards were selling out fast, the games were flying off the shelves, and the TV show and following movies were huge money-makers.
Not that the franchise still isn’t making big bucks nowadays – after all, Pokémon GO had its moment back in 2016, despite the chaos it could sometimes cause.
And an irrelevant show wouldn’t make its way into the world of NFTs, would it?
But it can’t compare to the height of the franchise’s popularity back in the 1990s.
It was in the summer of 1998 that All Nippon Airways unveiled two Pokémon Jets, one a Boeing 747-400 and the other a Boeing 746-300.
They proved to be such a big hit that a third plane – a 767 – was added to the fleet within weeks.
A fourth plane would join its colorful siblings in February 1999, although this one would be dispatched to the airline’s North American network.
For the fifth plane, a contest was held to allow children the opportunity to submit their own designs.
The winning design would be unveiled in the summer of 1999 at Osaka, on a Boeing 747-400D.
That same design would subsequently be used on two further planes – two Boeing 737 300s.
The planes varied in lifespan, with some having their livery removed as early as 2001, while others remained adorned with Pikachu’s face until 2013.
All Nippon Airways is currently planning for two new Pokémon Jets to go into service in 2028.
And don’t think that these jets were all about the exterior – the theme carried on inside, down to the headrests, flight attendant uniforms, food containers, in-flight entertainment, and souvenir bags.
As a result of the marketing stunt, the airline saw an uptick in passengers.
You could say the airline’s approach to attracting customers was ‘Gotta catch ’em all’.
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We love seeing a plane with a distinctive livery
If there’s one thing more eye-catching than a plane, it’s a plane with a wonderfully creative livery.
Much like the Pokémon Jet, this Pepsi Concorde was also a product of the 1990s.
Ditto for the McPlane, an aircraft which was basically a flying advertisement for McDonald’s.
Perhaps that decade was the height of creative plane liveries, who knows?
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Following stints at LadBible, The Sun, The New York Post, and the Daily Mail, Ben joined the team full-time in February 2025. In his role as Senior Content Writer, his sparkling copy, the ability to sniff out a good story at 100 paces, and a GSOH quickly led to him becoming an integral and invaluable member of the writing staff.
