"Lack of foresight in Japanese airport planning"

Tuesday, November 5, 2002

Lack of foresight in airport planning
Japan - Mainichi Daily News


The construction of airports requires long-term vision and a huge pool
of funds. For that reason, it must have the blessing of the taxpaying
public. 

Unless planned with great care, the state could wind up making the kind
of mistake it made at Narita, which requires some 10 billion yen a year
for security against guerrilla attacks. This is a big waste of money. 

The Kansai International Airport Co. could run into the same kind of
problem with its huge debts, precarious management, and flooding of
facilities. Its decision to go ahead with a second runway -- despite
opposition from fiscal authorities and without a careful assessment of
real demand --could turn up to be a costly error. 

The plan to privatize hub international airports at Narita, Kansai, and
Chubu was heavily criticized for being a mindless attempt to salvage
their ailing finances and was later retracted. But a similar plan to
compel taxpayers to foot the bill for Kansai's failures is in the works.


The plan calls for forcibly redirecting flights from Itami Airport for
domestic flights to Kansai. This would transfer 50 of the 250 daily jet
flights that now land or depart from Itami and eliminate all
long-distance flights at the airport. Transport authorities assert that
this is to alleviate environmental problems around the airport, but the
arguments have not been very convincing. 

Admittedly, Itami is located in a residential neighborhood, so noise has
long been a problem, but this is hardly enough grounds to suddenly cut
the number of flights. There have not been any reported discussions
about the problem with area residents. 

Another dubious plan to alleviate Kansai's debt burden is to inject
public funds into its management. But the debts are the results of poor
market research and a lack of concern with turning a profit. 

If these problems are not corrected first, no increase in passengers or
injections of public funds is going to improve the situations. Adding to
these woes is the construction of yet another airport nearby off the
coast of Kobe. 

Additional flights may eventually be redirected from Itami to Kobe when
the airport is completed. 

Proof of this is that government officials have been hinting that Itami
may be downgraded into a purely local airport. Their unstated agenda, it
seems, is then to upgrade Kobe. 

The Kinki district's three airports at Kansai, Itami, and Kobe are
criticized for giving priority to political concerns over financial
soundness. Now noise pollution has been used as an excuse to rescue
Kansai and Kobe at Itami's expense. Before pushing forth with this plan,
airline officials and local residents should be consulted. 

While noise pollution is a serious problem, it is even more problematic
for the government's airport policy to keep changing without any
consistency.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID8

*****************************************