Solaseed Air

Is Solaseed Air safe?

Yes. Solaseed Air has flown since 2002, first as Skynet Asia Airways, without a fatal accident or the loss of an aircraft. It answers to Japan's demanding regulator and flies one well-known type, the Boeing 737-800. We score it 85, just above Air Do (84), its sister in the same holding company, and below Peach (87). What holds it back is the crew room, not the runway: Japan's transport ministry warned Solaseed twice in four years over pilots and cabin crew breaking basic rules.

Who operates Solaseed flights?

Solaseed does, under its own air operator certificate and code (6J). ANA sells seats on many of its flights as codeshares, so a ticket may show an NH flight number, but the crew, aircraft and safety record are Solaseed's. Under our rules an event on such a flight counts here, not on the All Nippon Airways page.

Since October 2022 Solaseed and Air Do have been subsidiaries of one holding company, Regional Plus Wings. Since October 2024 that company has carried out both airlines' maintenance, with 154 engineers seconded from Solaseed and 188 from Air Do, under its own approval as a maintenance organisation. The airlines did not merge: each keeps its brand, code and certificate, and each publishes its own safety report.

What accidents and incidents has Solaseed had?

The Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) lists one accident and one serious incident.

• South-west of Naha, July 2022. Flight 41 from Naha to Ishigaki climbed over a fast-growing convective cloud and shook hard, pushing people down into their seats. The seat-belt sign was off and cabin service had started. A flight attendant fell and broke a bone in her left foot. The JTSB found the pilots had no clouds or turbulence on their path when they switched the sign off and could not have expected the cloud's growth; it suggested sharing weather information with cabin crew and switching the sign on earlier.
• Over the Pacific, February 2005. A Skynet Asia 737-400 from Haneda to Miyazaki lost cabin pressure at about 33,700 feet when a valve opened too far; the oxygen masks dropped and the crew made an emergency descent and landed safely. That is now more than 20 years ago.

In its fiscal 2025 safety report Solaseed listed 15 lesser "safety troubles" reported to the regulator. Five were for carrying items that should not have been carried, one for an overdue repeat inspection after an engine structural repair, and one for using an old alcohol tester after a long delay. None was a serious incident.

Why did the regulator warn Solaseed?

Two strict warnings fall inside our ten-year window:

The 2021 case weighs more. It involved deliberate cheating on a safety check, and showed that crew members could get around a test that Japan treats very seriously. An earlier warning, in October 2012, was for flying 11 flights over three days after a captain failed to sign the aircraft's technical log, a repeat of a 2009 case. We found no regulator action since 2021, and Solaseed's own report says there was none in fiscal 2025.

What does Solaseed fly?

Fourteen Boeing 737-800s, 13 with 174 seats and one with 176, in one class. At 31 March 2026 they averaged 12 years 7 months; the first joined in July 2011. The 737-800 is a proven type but an older generation without fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary controls, which puts the fleet near Skymark's. Solaseed has said it will look at replacing its jets with a newer generation, but we found no order.

How to fly Solaseed safely

Most of Solaseed's network runs from Haneda, Naha and Nagoya to Miyazaki, Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Oita and Okinawa, with a hop from Naha to Ishigaki. Summer brings two risks. Storm clouds over Okinawa and southern Kyushu grow fast enough to catch pilots out, as the 2022 accident shows, so keep your seat belt fastened whenever you are seated. Typhoons, roughly June to October, close Okinawa airports at short notice; if your flight is cancelled, rebook rather than chase a marginal departure.

How we scored it

The accident record (94) has no deaths and no lost aircraft over more than 20 years. Oversight (86) reflects Japan's strong regulator without confirmed IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary. The fleet (72) is a single older type averaging over 12 years. Serious incidents (74) carry the 2018 and 2021 warnings, and environment scores 85. Overall 85.