TOKYO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

(Redirected from Haneda Airport)

, located in Ota, Tokyo, Japan, is one of the two primary airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area.
It is commonly known as to differentiate it from Narita International Airport, which was called "New Tokyo International Airport" until 2004. Narita handles most international flights to the region; Haneda's only international service are "city to city" to Gimpo International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, and with Hongqiao airport flights to Shanghai starting soon.
Haneda is Japan's busiest airport and consistently ranks among the world's busiest passenger airports (ranking fourth in 2006), even though nearly all of its flights are to destinations within Japan. By passenger throughput, Haneda is the busiest airport in Asia, handling 65.3 million passengers in 2006^[1].

History

International era

Haneda Airfield in 1937

first opened in 1931 on a small piece of bayfront land at the south end of today's airport complex. It was Japan's largest civil airport at the time it was constructed, and took over from the army air base at Tachikawa as the main operating base of Japan Air Transport, then the country's flag carrier. During the 1930's, Haneda handled flights to destinations in Japan, Korea and Manchuria.
In 1945, U.S. occupation forces took over the airport and renamed it 'Haneda Army Air Base'. The Army evicted many nearby residents to make room for various construction projects. As a military base, Haneda received its first international flights in 1947 when Northwest Orient began scheduled service to the United States, China, South Korea, and the Philippines. Japan Airlines began its first domestic operations from Haneda in 1951. The U.S. military gave part of the base back to Japan in 1952; this portion became known as Tokyo International Airport. The rest of the base was returned to Japan in 1958.
European carriers began service to Haneda in the 1950s, with BOAC operating de Havilland Comet flights to London via the southern route in 1952, and SAS operating DC-7 flights to Copenhagen via Anchorage beginning in 1957. JAL and Aeroflot began cooperative service from Haneda to Moscow in 1967. Other airlines at Haneda during this period included Pan Am, Sabena, Swissair, Canadian Pacific Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways and Air Siam. Both Pan Am and Northwest Orient used Haneda as an Asian regional hub.
Haneda's instrument landing system became operational in 1961.
The Tokyo Monorail began service between Haneda and central Tokyo in 1964, in time for the Tokyo Olympics. During 1964, Japan also lifted travel restrictions on its citizens, causing passenger traffic at the airport to swell. A new runway and international terminal were completed in 1970, but demand continued to outpace expansion.
The government anticipated this growth in the early 1960s. However, they believed that further expansion of Haneda would be impractical due to the cost and technical issues inherent in a large-scale landfill project in Tokyo Bay. Instead, a plan was put forward to build a new airport to handle Tokyo's international flights. In 1978, Narita International Airport opened, taking over almost all international service in the Greater Tokyo Area, and Haneda became a domestic airport.

Domestic era

ANA aircraft at Terminal 2

Terminal 2, completed in 2004, now houses ANA and Air Do.

While most international flights moved from Haneda to Narita in 1978, airlines based on Taiwan continued to use Haneda Airport for many years due to the ongoing political conflict between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China. China Airlines served Taipei and Honolulu from Haneda; Taiwan's second major airline, EVA Air, joined CAL at Haneda in 1989.
All Taiwan flights were moved to Narita in 2002, and Haneda-Honolulu services ceased. However, in 2003, JAL, ANA, KAL and Asiana began service to Gimpo Airport near Seoul, providing a "scheduled charter" city-to-city service which is currently Haneda's only regular international service. Currently, many international travelers from the Greater Tokyo Area fly from Haneda to Kansai Airport or other international airports in Japan and then connect to international flights, saving the time and expense otherwise required to get to Narita.
Despite the Transport Ministry's initial reservations about expanding Haneda Airport onto new landfill in Tokyo Bay, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government began using the adjacent bay area as a waste dumping site, thus creating a large amount of landfill upon which the airport could expand. In July of 1988, a new runway opened on the landfill area. In September of 1993, the old airport terminal was replaced by a new West Passenger Terminal, nicknamed "Big Bird," which was built farther out on the landfill. Two new runways were completed in March 1997 and March 2000. In 2004, Terminal 2 opened at Haneda for ANA and Air Do; the 1993 terminal, now known as Terminal 1, became the base for JAL, Skymark and Skynet Asia Airways.^[2]
In October 2006, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reached an informal agreement to launch bilateral talks regarding an additional city-to-city service between Haneda and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport.^[3] On 25 June 2007, the two governments concluded an agreement allowing for the Haneda-Hongqiao service to commence from October 2007.^[4]

Future development

A fourth runway is presently under construction to the south of the existing airfield, and is planned to be completed by 2010. This runway is expected to increase Haneda's operational capacity from 285,000 movements to 407,000 movements per year, permitting increased frequencies on existing routes, as well as routes to new destinations.^[5]
Upon completion of the fourth runway, the Ministry of Transport plans to allocate a number of the newly available landing slots to international flights of 1,947 km (1,210 mi) or less (the distance to Ishigaki, the longest domestic flight operating from Haneda).⁵ The destinations within this range include Korea, parts of eastern and northern China (including Shanghai, Qingdao, Dalian and Harbin) and parts of the Russian Far East (including Vladivostok and Sakhalin).^[6]
A third terminal for international flights is planned for completion in December 2009. The cost to construct the five-story terminal building and attached 2,300-car parking deck will be covered by a Private Finance Initiative process, revenues from duty-free concessions and a facility use charge of ¥2,000 per passenger. Both the Tokyo Monorail and the Keikyu Airport Line will be routed to stop at the new terminal, and an international air cargo facility will also be constructed nearby.⁵

Disasters

★ 1982: Japan Airlines Flight 350 crashed near the airport as a result of deliberate action by the pilot. 24 of 174 passengers and crew died.

★ August 12, 1985: Japan Airlines Flight 123, bound for Osaka International Airport, Itami/Toyonaka, lost control and crashed into a mountain after takeoff from Haneda; it is the worst single-aircraft disaster in history, with 520 dead.

★ 1999: All Nippon Airways Flight 61 was hijacked shortly after takeoff. The hijacker killed the pilot before he was subdued; the aircraft landed safely.

Terminals, airlines and destinations

Haneda Airport has three terminals. The main terminals, 1 and 2, are connected by an underground walkway; a free shuttle bus runs between the main terminals and the smaller International Terminal every five minutes.
Although Haneda Airport is open 24 hours, the two main passenger terminals are only open from 5 AM to 11:30 PM. The terminals may be extended to 24-hour operation due to StarFlyer's late-night and early-morning service between Haneda and Kitakyushu, which began in March 2006.
All three terminals are managed by , a private company. The rest of the airport is managed by the government.

Terminal 1

Terminal 1 ticketing concourse

Terminal 1, called "Big Bird," opened in 1993, replacing the smaller 1970 terminal complex. The linear building features a six-story restaurant and shopping area in its center section and a large rooftop observation deck.

★ Japan Airlines (Akita, Amami Oshima, Aomori, Asahikawa, Fukuoka, Hakodate, Hiroshima, Izumo, Kagoshima, Kita-kyushu, Kobe, Kochi, Komatsu, Kumamoto, Kushiro, Matsuyama, Memanbetsu, Misawa, Miyazaki, Nagasaki, Naha, Nanki-Shirahama, Oita, Okayama, Osaka-Itami, Osaka-Kansai, Sapporo-Chitose, Takamatsu, Tokachi-Obihiro, Tokushima, Toyama, Yamagata, Yamaguchiube)

★
★ Japan Transocean Air (Ishigaki, Kumejima, Miyako, Naha)

★ All Nippon Airways (Kita-kyushu)

★ Skymark Airlines (Fukuoka, Kobe, Naha, Sapporo-Chitose)

★ StarFlyer (Kitakyushu)

Terminal 2

Terminal 2 ticketing concourse

Terminal 2 opened on December 1, 2004. It features an open-air rooftop restaurant, a six-story "marketplace" area with restaurants and shops, and the 387-room Haneda Excel Tokyu Hotel.
The construction of Terminal 2 was financed by levying a ¥100 passenger service facility charge on tickets, the first domestic PSFC in Japan.

★ Hokkaido International Airlines (Asahikawa, Hakodate, Memanbetsu, Sapporo Chitose)

★ All Nippon Airways (Akita, Fukuoka, Hachijojima, Hakodate, Hiroshima, Ishigaki, Iwami, Kagoshima, Kobe, Kochi, Komatsu, Kumamoto, Kushiro, Matsuyama, Miyazaki, Monbetsu, Nagasaki, Naha, Nemuro-Nakashibetsu, Noto, Odate, Okayama, Oita, Osaka-Itami, Osaka-Kansai, Oshima, Saga, Sapporo-Chitose, Shonai, Takamatsu, Tottori, Toyama, Wakkanai, Yonago)

★ Skynet Asia Airways (Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Nagasaki)

International Terminal

Haneda's international terminal currently only handles charter flights, as scheduled international flights are generally required to use Narita Airport. The main international flights during the day are "scheduled charter" flights to and from Seoul Gimpo Airport. These flights are operated by All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, Japan Airlines, and Korean Air, each carrier operating two flights per day. A similar service to Shanghai Hongqiao Airport is scheduled to start on September 29, 2007.^[7] The terminal also handles other charter flights at late night and early morning hours when Narita Airport is closed.

★ All Nippon Airways (Seoul-Gimpo, Shanghai-Hongqiao [starts September 29, 2007])

★ Asiana Airlines (Seoul-Gimpo)

★ China Eastern Airlines (Shanghai-Hongqiao [starts September 29, 2007])

★ Japan Airlines (Seoul-Gimpo, Shanghai-Hongqiao [starts September 29, 2007])

★ Korean Air (Seoul-Gimpo)

★ Shanghai Airlines (Shanghai-Hongqiao [starts September 29, 2007])

Other facilities

Haneda Airport has a special VIP terminal and two parking spots for private aircraft. This area is often used by foreign heads of state visiting Japan, as well as by Japanese government aircraft carrying the Imperial family, the Prime Minister or other officials. (Narita is also regularly used for such flights despite its much greater distance from central Tokyo.)
Haneda also has a number of cargo facilities, and is the third-largest air cargo hub in Japan after Narita and Kansai.

Ground transportation

Rail

Tokyo Monorail station at Terminal 1.

Haneda Airport is served by the Keihin Kyuko Railway and Tokyo Monorail. The monorail has two stations, one in each terminal; Keikyu operates a single station between the terminals.
Keikyu offers trains to Shinagawa Station (19 min., ¥400) and Yokohama Station (27 min., ¥470), and through service to the Toei Asakusa Line, which makes several stops in eastern Tokyo. Some Keikyu trains also run through to the Keisei Oshiage Line and Keisei Main Line, making it possible to reach Narita International Airport by train. Although a few direct trains run in the morning, a transfer along the Keisei Line is generally necessary to reach Narita. The train ride to Narita takes about 2 hours and costs ¥1,560.
Tokyo Monorail offers trains to Hamamatsucho Station (¥470), where passengers can connect to the Yamanote Line to reach other points in Tokyo. Express trains make the nonstop run from Haneda Airport to Hamamatsucho in 16 minutes.

Bus

There is also regular bus service to many points in the Kantō region. The following travel times are scheduled, and may be longer due to frequent traffic jams around Tokyo.

★ Yokohama Station — 30 min., ¥560

★ Tokyo Station — 40 min., ¥900

★ Tokyo City Air Terminal

★ Shinjuku Station — 50 min., ¥1,200

★ Ikebukuro Station — 70 min., ¥1,200

★ Narita International Airport — 75 min., ¥3,000

★ Chiba Station — 80 min., ¥1,330