Naha Airport is the hub forJapan Transocean Air, which connects Okinawa Prefecture with other prefectures of Japan, andRyukyu Air Commuter, which connects Okinawa main island with surrounding islands.
Naha Airport is a 24-hour airport, and served 21.5 million passengers in 2018, an increase of roughly three million passengers in two years. It is the sixth busiest airport in Japan afterNew Chitose Airport inSapporo. As of 2022, the route betweenHaneda Airport and Naha Airport is the third busiest in Japan, while the route betweenFukuoka Airport and Naha is the seventh busiest.The longest domestic scheduled flight in Japan is the daily route between New Chitose and Naha, operated byPeach Aviation. The flight takes 4 hours.
According toSkytrax’s World Top Airports 100 in 2024, Naha Airport is ranked 91st in the world, a significant improvement from 199th place the previous year, making Naha Airport the most improved airport in the world.[citation needed]
Aerial view of Naha Airport (26 May 2010)Aerial view of Naha Airport (April 2019) before the completion of the second runway
Air America operated interisland flights toMiyako andIshigaki from 1964 to 1967, when Southwest Airlines (nowJapan Transocean Air) took over these routes. Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972. In 1982, Naha Airport was transferred from US military control to theJapan Air Self-Defense Force. The basic and detailed design engineering works in addition to the later construction management phase of the main passenger terminal were awarded in the 1990s in part to the Japan Branch of the American design-build engineering company,The Austin Company, which joined Japanese firms in a joint venture design consortium.
The airport has been undergoing major development projects that will continue to transform the airport. In 2008, the government[which?] agreed to significantly expand the domestic terminal, which will require the relocation of cargo facilities and the international terminal.[citation needed]
The construction of a second 2,700 m (8,900 ft) parallel runway began on March 1, 2014 on 160 hectares (400 acres) of an artificial island.[1]
The new international terminal opened in February 2014. The international terminal was again expanded by 3,000 m2 (32,000 sq ft) in November 2016. A new building connecting the domestic and international terminals was completed in 2019, the second runway began operation on March 26 2020.[4]
ALCCT terminal has been in operation since 2012. A six-lane under bay tunnel for auto transport linking the airport with the Naha Port boosting the utility of the intermodal facility was completed in 2011. This tunnel will also link a 2.6-hectare (6.4-acre)Free Trade Zone near the Airport with another 122-hectare (300-acre) FTZ located atNakagusuku Bay.Peach, alow-cost carrier (LCC) based atKansai International Airport in Osaka, announced that it would establish its second hub at Naha in July 2014, which would initially have flights toOsaka,Fukuoka, Ishigaki and Taipei.[5]ANA Holdings, the parent company of both Peach andVanilla Air, opened a new LCC terminal in a refurbished portion of the airport's cargo area in October 2012, and plans to open new international facilities in October 2014.[6]
All Nippon Airways operates an overnight cargo hub at Naha Airport, which receives inboundBoeing 767 freighter flights from key destinations in Japan, China and Southeast Asia between 1 and 4 a.m., followed by return flights between 4 and 6 a.m., allowing overnight service between these regional hubs as well as onward connections to other ANA and partner carrier flights.[48][needs update]
On December 11, 1994,Armaldo Forlani (Ramzi Yousef) planted a bomb onPhilippine Airlines Flight 434, which exploded while the flight was en route fromCebu toTokyo, killing one passenger and injuring ten other passengers. The plane made an emergency landing at Naha Airport safely.
On August 20, 2007,China Airlines Flight 120, aBoeing 737-800, was taxiing to the ramp after landing when suddenly a fire started beneath the right wing, quickly engulfing the entire plane. All passengers and crew members were evacuated safely. Investigations later revealed that part of theslat drive mechanism pierced the fuel tank, and the leaking fuel ignited when it came into contact with hot engine parts.
On June 3, 2015, anAll Nippon AirwaysBoeing 737 bound forSapporo aborted takeoff at Naha after aJASDFCH-47 Chinook helicopter crossed its departure path without clearance. An inboundJapan Transocean Air flight landed on the same runway, stopping 400 meters behind the ANA aircraft, despite an air traffic control order to go around, which the JTA pilot claimed to have received after landing.[52]
On December 4, 2020, Japan Airlines Flight 904, operated by a Boeing 777-200 fromOkinawa Naha airport toTokyo Haneda suffered a fan blade failure in one of its two PW4084 engines. None of the 189 occupants on board were injured in the incident.[53]
Media related toNaha Airport at Wikimedia Commons
