All Nippon Airways will deploy onboard interpreters to better serve passengers, starting twice weekly on its Narita-Taipei flights, ANA officials said Wednesday.
Six female Taiwanese interpreters in their 20s who can speak Taiwanese, Mandarin and English were selected from 700 candidates for the new posts.
Two of them can also speak Japanese.
Only Japanese flight attendants who can speak Japanese and English have worked the Narita-Taipei flights. ANA decided to add an interpreter to each flight starting next Monday because the number of Taiwanese passengers has increased recently, the officials said.
Wu Yi-fan, 24, one of the six interpreters, formerly worked as a clerk at the airline. She said in Japanese she will not only translate but also try to attend to passengers with kindness.
Flight attendants who speak Mandarin currently work on ANA flights to and from Shanghai.
The airline said it is considering having onboard interpreters serve on flights to and from mainland China and Bangkok as well in the near future.
