It is adjacent toChitose Air Base, aJapan Air Self-Defense Force base which housesF-15 Eagle fighter jets, theJapanese Air Force One government aircraft and a number of smaller emergency response aircraft and helicopters. Chitose and New Chitose have separaterunways but are interconnected bytaxiways, and aircraft at either facility can enter the other by ground if permitted; the runways at Chitose are occasionally used to relieve runway closures at New Chitose due to winter weather.
New Chitose Airport is one of six 24-hour airports in Japan, but it is the only inland airport; also, this airport has daily opening hours limit unlike other 24-hour operational airport terminals.
As of 2018, it was the fifth-busiest airport in Japan, serving 23.7 million passengers, and ranked 64th in the world in terms of passengers carried.[4] The 819 km (509 mi) Sapporo–Tokyo Haneda route is thesecond busiest air route in the world, with 9.7 million passengers carried in 2018.[5]
The airport continues to upgrade its facilities to accommodate the growing number of passengers, andSkytrax has it ranked 49th in the top 100 airports in the world in 2024, a jump up from 102nd the previous year. As a result, the airport was awarded Skytrax's World's Most Improved Airport for 2024.[citation needed]
New Chitose opened on July 20, 1988, to replace the adjacentChitose Airport, a joint-use facility which had served passenger flights since 1963.[6] The airport'sIATA airport code was originallySPK. This code was later adopted as a city code to refer to both New Chitose and the smallerOkadama Airport in central Sapporo, which handles commuter flights withinHokkaido.
New Chitose became Japan's first 24-hour airport in 1994.[citation needed] Services between 10 PM and 7 AM are currently limited to six flights per day due to noise alleviation concerns. Four of these slots are currently used by passenger flights to Tokyo while the other two are used by cargo flights.[citation needed]
New Chitose previously had long-haul service toAmsterdam (KLM, 1997–2002),Cairns (Qantas, 1992–1998 and 2004–2007) andHonolulu (JALWays, 1992–2003,Hawaiian Airlines since 2012). Service to Europe had resumed whenFinnair launched a new weekly flight toHelsinki from 15 December 2019, but this service was terminated during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[7] International services are mainly for transporting tourists from the rest of Asia and forsightseeing andskiing. The area surrounding gates 0 through 2, on the north end of the main terminal, was a sterile area for international flights until the international terminal opened for service on March 26, 2010.[citation needed]
The airport was upgraded with additional private aircraft handling facilities for the34th G8 summit, held in Hokkaido in 2008.[citation needed]
Due to the airport's sharing of air traffic control with Chitose Air Base, daytime civil operations are limited to 32 takeoffs and landings per hour, and operations by certain foreign aircraft (including Chinese and Russian aircraft) are prohibited on Mondays and Thursdays. These restrictions were scheduled to be eased in March 2017.[8] A second terminal was built roughly doubling the existing terminal and capacity, completed by August 2019.[9] The second terminal is used to handle international flights.
The airport has a semicircular domestic terminal (reminiscent of the semicircular terminals atDallas Fort Worth International Airport) with eighteen gates, and a smaller international terminal with eight gates on the west side.
Operating hours for international flights at CTS are restricted by the Japanese government in order to avoid interference withJASDF operations at the adjacent air base. As of April 2012, international flights are permitted on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 12:00 to 16:00, and from 17:00 on Friday through 23:59 on Sunday.[10]
Media related toNew Chitose Airport at Wikimedia Commons
JR Hokkaido
Sapporo Municipal Subway
