Tokyo, June 26, 2015 - ANA, Japan's leading airline, is proud to announce it has entered into a multi-year agreement as an official partner of the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), the governing body of aquatic sports worldwide, beginning 2015 and running through 2018. This announcement comes on the heels of ANA's successful sponsorship of the first year of the LPGA's newly named 'ANA INSPIRATION' golf tournament, and solidifies ANA's ongoing commitment to sports sponsorship leading up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

ANA's involvement in FINA begins this year and includes sponsorship of the "FINA World Aquatics Championships" in Kazan, Russia (July 24-August 9, 2015) and Budapest, Hungary (July-August 2017) as well as the "FINA World Swimming Championships" in Windsor, Canada (December 7-11, 2016) and Hangzhou, China (December 2018) 1.

These FINA events determine the world champions of aquatic sports, making them one of the biggest and most well-known sporting events, covering six disciplines (swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo, open water swimming, and high diving) and 75 events and involving more than 2,000 top athletes representing almost 180 countries. As an official partner, ANA believes it can simultaneously contribute to the success of FINA events while providing a significant boost to ANA's brand awareness and value around the world, as the airline looks to grow its international passenger business.

ANA has a long history in the development and promotion of swimming and other aquatic sports since 2004, as an official sponsor of the Japan Swimming Federation. The airline also recruits swimmers and other athletes to the company as employees through its Athlete Navigation System. In addition to aquatic sports, ANA has diverse sports sponsorship experience spanning table tennis, figure skating and golf, including the LPGA women's golf tournament, ANA Inspiration, held in Rancho Mirage, California, earlier this year.

Osamu Shinobe, President and CEO of ANA, said, "We enthusiastically support sporting organizations and athletes because we believe sport provides people with hopes and aspirations and contributes to world peace. We believe aquatics and swimming will play an important role in the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which led us to this FINA partnership as well as our recent announcement as an official airline partner of Tokyo 2020."

The agreement gives ANA exclusive marketing rights in the airline category, and the ANA logo will appear throughout the event venues. In addition, ANA earns the right to promote itself to athletes and event visitors, along with the right to use the FINA logo on goods and printed materials.

1Host countries are subject to change

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