PDF-File - Star Alliance Employees Portal

10network 02|10Haneda poisedfor international expansionBy Tom BallantyneThe growth of international airline traffic through Tokyo has been hampered foryears by slot constraints at the city’s Narita International Airport. That’s about tochange. Not only is Narita on the eve of a significant rise in aircraft movements,but the city’s second commercial airport, Tokyo-Haneda, once a purely domesticfacility, will later this year become a full-scale international hub.The development promises to revolutioniseTokyo’s status as an Asian hub and have aprofound effect on airline networks, allowingmany carriers to operate a dual hub structurein one of the region’s most importantbusiness centres.Billed locally as the “Tokyo Big Bang”, theairport expansions involve:• a 10 per cent increase in movements to220,000 a year at premier internationalgateway Narita from March, the result ofextending the airport’s Runway B.• and, with the opening of a fourth runway atHaneda in October, an approximate 13 percent capacity increase during daytimehours there, from 292,000 movements to331,000 a year, with 30,000 movementsfor international operations. And, at a laterstage up to 407,000 movements.The attraction of Haneda for internationalairlines is that it is only 30 minutes from centralTokyo, compared to the more than anhour it currently takes to travel to or fromNarita (although a new Rapid Railway Systemopening later this year will connect Naritawith central Tokyo in only 36 minutes).But whatever expansion is occurring atNarita, it is the emergence of Haneda as asecond Tokyo gateway for international trafficthat is most significant. Already handlingover 66 million passengers annually, makingit Asia’s busiest airport, Haneda caters to asmall amount of international traffic, mainlycharter services to short-haul destinationssuch as Korea and China.Until now the Japanese government hascarefully maintained a policy of designatingNarita as the international gateway, andHaneda as the principal domestic hub.