Operators Hope Chubu Airport Gives Narita, Kansai Run for Their Money

February 18, 2004

Operators Hope Chubu Airport Gives Narita, Kansai Run
for Their Money
Japan Times, Japan

NAGOYA (Kyodo) Central Japan International Airport,
under construction off the city of Tokoname, Aichi
Prefecture, will be the third-largest international
airport in Japan when it opens for round-the-clock
operations next Feb. 17.
 
Central Japan International Airport is being built off
Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, and is slated to open in
February 2005.  

The management firm for the new Chubu (central Japan)
airport, led by Yukihisa Hirano, a former executive of
Toyota Motor Corp., claims to have drastically cut
construction costs with thorough cost management.

The airport, being built on a 580-hectare man-made
island in Ise Bay, will be linked to Tokoname on the
opposite shore with a road and railroad. Work on an
asphalt runway is almost complete, and landing and
takeoff trials will begin in June.

Aichi, Gifu and Mie prefectures, the Nagoya Municipal
Government and the local economic community planned
the new airport on the assumption that the existing
Nagoya airport will soon reach its passenger and cargo
capacity.

A study committee formed in 1985 chose the site and
construction began last August. The airport's opening
was moved up one month to meet the start of the Aichi
Expo on March 25, 2005.

Hirano said, "The number of domestic flights in the
central Japan region is larger than at Narita and
Kansai airports. Chubu is most convenient for local
people to get on international flights from domestic
flights."

The new airport will accommodate both domestic and
international traffic.

After Japan's two largest international airports --
Narita and Kansai -- opened, Tokyo's Haneda airport
and Kansai's Itami airport, which had handled
international flights, continued to exist as domestic
hubs. However, all domestic and international flights
at Nagoya airport will be transferred to Chubu to
ensure profitability through flight concentration,
officials said.

The older airport, north of Nagoya, will be shut down.

At present, people transferring to international
flights at Narita from domestic flights into Haneda
have to allow at least 3 1/2 hours between their
arrival at Haneda and departure from Narita, which is
over 60 km away, to allow for travel time by train and
immigration and other procedures.

The transfer time at Chubu will be much shorter.

"People from Sapporo, for instance, would be better
off leaving Japan via Chubu," said Yoshinori Hirochi,
executive director of the airport-operating company.

The firm estimates 7 million domestic passengers and 5
million international flight passengers will use the
airport annually, and has launched sales drives
targeting travel agents in Fukuoka and Sendai as well
as in Hokkaido.

>From the center of Nagoya it will take 28 minutes by
express train to the airport.

Unlike the present Nagoya airport, Chubu will be
linked directly to the railroad.

The key to the airport's success will be how many
international flights it can attract, industry sources
said.

According to a survey carried out in 2002, about 40
percent of people going abroad for business trips from
five prefectures in the Chubu region went to Narita
and Kansai because of the small number of
international flights from Nagoya airport.

In addition to some 200 international flights weekly
to be shifted from Nagoya, Chubu has secured about 60
more flights.

"Airlines are highly rating the potential of the new
airport to attract a larger number of business-class
passengers for overseas trips," Hirochi said.


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