Green limousine service launched at Narita

(Toyota)

Passengers on Japanese airline ANA are set to be ferried in eco-friendly luxury thanks to a partnership between the airline and Toyota.

An agreement announced last week will see Toyota provide eco-friendly cars to the airline to help with the transportation of passengers from Narita when flying in from London, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, or Chicago.

The vehicles will form part of ANA's Welcome-Home Limousine Taxi Service and will be powered using fuel cells, which utilize hydrogen power to provide a distance of approximately 830 km, emitting only water.

They will be available for passengers who purchased first or business class tickets departing Japan until March 31, 2011 as part of the first stage of a trial, ANA said.

For Toyota, which also runs a fuel cell hybrid bus between Tokyo and Haneda, the city's other international airport, it's a chance to test the potential of the cars in real life, including on highways for the nearly 60 km journey between Narita and Tokyo.

Although airlines are exploring the use of biofuels to green their aircraft - ANA is a member of the Sustainable Aviation Fuels Users Group - it seems that they're also keen on greening transportation on the ground too.

Virgin Atlantic, which has also tested biofuel flights, partnered with General Motors in 2008 to test Chevrolet's Equinox Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars in Los Angeles and New York, although the program is no longer running.

http://www.ana.co.jp/eng/int/svc/oth_svc/taxi/index.html