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Representative Director and Executive Officer
Sadami Matsuishi
Star Flyer Inc.
Representative Director and Executive Officer
Sadami Matsuishi
"Growing by Leaps in Step with the Pride of the Local People"
Star Flyer Inc.
Representative Director and Executive Officer (as of June 2020)
Sadami Matsuishi
1975 Graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University and joined All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd.
2008 President of ANA Aero Supply Systems Co., Ltd.
2014 Advisor to Star Flyer Inc.
Born in Nagasaki, Japan. Age 67
Kitakyushu City, which is the home to Star Flyer, is one of the world’s largest producing areas of titan (titanium sponge) as well as the main manufacturing site and one of the sites where we, Nippon Steel who develops the designing titanium TranTixxii, were founded.
In 2019, Nippon Steel started collaboration with Snow Peak, an outdoor brand which has adopted the designing titanium TranTixxii.
As one of the items that can be exchanged with mileage points for members of the mileage program STAR LINK, the companies offer their unique titanium products.
Introduction of the company
Under the corporate philosophy of "an impressive airline," we have been improving our unique presence in the industry.
Our corporate design based around black was not seen at any other airlines. While going through many challenges, such as all leather seats fully equipped with facilities (such as a personal monitor, USB power supply, and AC power supply) and space between seats that is one of the largest classes in the domestic airlines, we have been deeply favored by customers who mainly use our services for business purposes.
As we were not satisfied with the previous five domestic routes, we also ventured into international flights in October 2018. We are proud of our continued efforts to impress customers, including not only in ensuring safety, but in being ranked No. 1 in customer satisfaction in the domestic airlines for eleven years in a row.
We challenge ourselves every day to become an unprecedented airline that is continued to be chosen by customers.
Journey of Star Flyer up to now and its philosophy
Mother Comet ～blaze through the world～
This is our brand concept. Mother Comet creates tens of thousand glowing meteor showers while flying through the sky. In the same way, Star Flyer wishes to be an airline that gives light to your hopes and dreams with a comfortable flight. Star Flyer hopes to become an airline that shines and travels around the world like a comet. While carrying forward the passion and philosophy of the aviation industry created by the Wright brothers with the thoughts incorporated into our company name at the time of our foundation, we have been continuing to work day and night to provide our passengers who choose us with hospitality to make them shine as "an impressive airline."
In such a spirit of the foundation, we chose stylish black for the aircraft color in pursuit of exploring an unprecedented "impressive airline" from a total design point of view regardless of conventional common sense. In the aviation industry where black had been avoided as an aircraft color for being unsuitable for an aircraft packed full of precision machinery because it absorbs sunlight, this attempt was completely unorthodox. After repeated safety verifications with Airbus, we were able to prove that there are in fact actually no problems with having a black aircraft, and thus our current stylish aircraft design that is not seen at any other airlines in the world was born. We consistently used black, not just for the aircraft design, but the aircraft interior as well based on our unique design philosophy. Under the concept of "the comfort of a private office and the relaxation of a hotel lounge," we have arranged all the seats with black leather. Our aircraft which is thoroughly refined by such unique design represents the uniqueness of our company.
Such our endless challenge for uniqueness was soon highly valued in the form of winning the Good Design Awards in the category of New Domain Design in 2006 when we had just started the business. Receiving an award for the total design of an airline was unheard of. At Good Design Presentation 2006, Star Flyer exhibited a booth catching the eye of a large number of visitors and receiving compliments and words of encouragement.
Our unique keyword for realizing an unprecedented "impressive airline" is "smart luxury." Merely designing the aircraft to provide it a uniform stylish appearance is not enough. We pursue sophisticated new luxury that is simple and modern by singling out truly important elements through to the details of our services and then cutting out waste. By combining the word "smart," which makes a clear distinction with "luxury", which gives a gorgeous image in general, we set new value at our core.
We take pride in our stance that we balance quality services and cost performance by ascertaining truly important elements and pursuing to explore refined and sophisticated "smart luxury." This is our unique business model that makes a clear distinction between our company and traditional legacy careers, LCC, and other airlines which tend to be on the both ends of high quality services and high cost performance.
Thanks to this unique business model, we were ranked No. 1 in the domestic travel category of the 2019 Japan Edition Customer Satisfaction Index Survey (JCSI) for eleven years in a row. We believe our strength really lies in our unique concept that transcends preconceptions.
Our feelings for Kitakyushu. Encounter with the TranTixxii brand
Kitakyushu City is the place where the Yahata Imperial Steel Works, one of the former facilities of Nippon Steel and part of which has been registered as a world heritage, started Japan’s steel industry.
The city is one of Japan’s leading industrial cities which is packed with businesses that lead not only the steel industry, but also a wide range of industries, from cutting-edge precision robots and sanitary ware to map information. In addition to being a key industrial location, the city, which is faced with Kanmon Channel, an important point in the transportation, has continued to be a strategic place and kept up a tradition as well since ancient times.
Since our foundation, we have been leaving our passion for paying back such Kitakyushu a favor unexpressed.
Although this is little-known, Kitakyushu City is a hidden “titanium city” which boasts one of the world’s largest production of titanium (titanium sponge/refined titanium), a cutting edge metal that is valuable for the aerospace, plant, and other industries. In addition to refining of titanium, the city leads a wider titanium industry covering the upstream to downstream processes. For example, Nippon Steel’s Kyushu Works, which carries out the post-refining process, generates titanium wrought products.
Due partly to this relation, Nippon Steel, one of local companies in Kitakyushu which has been a supporter of our company based in the city, sympathized with our stance and philosophy of adhering to maintaining uniqueness since our foundation. Accordingly, Nippon Steel approached us about a collaboration in beautiful titanium or the designing titanium TranTixxii, its unique concept that is not seen at any companies in the world, which led to our various projects.
We considered that companies which play an active part and revitalize the community in the same home city Kitakyushu supporting each other is an opportunity that we cannot miss. In addition, since we thought contributing to becoming a little proud of local people through promoting titanium, one of Kitakyushu’s proud industries, together is more than we can dream of, we actively worked on the collaboration. For me, who have devoted entirely to the airline business, I had a strong impression of titanium as an aircraft material, so I was very surprised by a wide lineup of beautiful expressions using the designing titanium TranTixxii based on its color and texture.
In this way, our collaboration with Snow Peak, referred to as the greatest of all other outdoor brands based on its unique philosophy through the designing titanium TranTixxii produced our original titanium mug cups in 2019.
Snow Peak meets the designing titanium TranTixxii. Collaboration with a brand who shares the same desires to create "a rich lifestyle" and "luxurious moments and spaces" as us and has its own unique aesthetics and philosophy was very fun and exciting at the same time for us who has been pursuing unique value as an unprecedented "impressive airline."
In addition, due partly to having active communication with people who love outdoor activities through a promotion using glamping and so on as a company who stays present to the "excitement" and the "moment when people shine," it was very timely collaboration for us.
Although a titanium mug cup is a must for people who love outdoor activities, we included it in the items that can be exchanged with mileage points as a token of appreciation for the patronage of customers who fly with us as a special item that provides "excitement".
It has been well received by our customers and has grown to be a popular item that they exchange with mileage points.
In addition to the mug cup, the TranTixxii brand has gradually giving a certain aura to our facilities in Kitakyushu Airport with its design that was not seen before. As one of the proud brands of local people in Kitakyushu, we hope we will be able to maintain the ongoing relationship to support each other.
Future activities / What we expect from the TranTixxii brand
This is a brand tag line launched in 2017 when we celebrated our 15th anniversary in an attempt to return to the philosophy at the time of our foundation.
"People who shine" are the words that express the brand personality of STARFLYER itself which has five elements: "personal," "modern," "sophisticated," "creative," and "thoughtfulness." The line is also an expression of our hope that our customers will be "people who shine" more.
To create an “exciting experience” for customers according to the policy of returning to the origin, we have been accelerating activities regardless of the common sense of previous airlines, which led us further to develop a suit "+FLOW" based on our unique concept and a medical rationale for presenting a world view and making a business travel flight a more better experience.
For the series of our activities and world view, we received authoritative
advertising awards in Japan and overseas, including ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS, Spikes Asia, AD STARS, One show, and D&AD Award.
We believe the collaboration with the designing titanium TranTixxii that has its own unique aesthetics will also further deepen according to such a course of events and thus we will be able to promote plans for realizing an "exciting experience" for customers.
We hope we the brands who are based in Kitakyushu and have a strong will to create things that are not seen at any other companies will be able to resolutely take on a challenge and compete to improve each other. To this end, we expect that the designing titanium TranTixxii will be further refined as a brand with edge as the one and only existence.
