Osaka International Airport

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Osaka International Airport
大阪国際空港
Ōsaka Kokusai Kūkō

IATA: ITM – ICAO: RJOO
Summary
Airport type public
Operator Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport [1] (airfield); Osaka International Airport Terminal Co., Ltd. (terminal)
Serves Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe
Location Osaka, Japan
Elevation AMSL 49 ft / 15 m
Coordinates 34°47′8″N 135°26′18″E / 34.78556, 135.43833
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
14R/32L 9,840 2,999 Concrete
14L/32R 5,997 1,828 Paved

Osaka International Airport (大阪国際空港 Ōsaka Kokusai Kūkō?) (IATA: ITM, ICAO: RJOO) is the primary domestic airport for the Kansai region of Japan, including the major cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. It is classified as a first class airport.

The airport is often called Itami Airport (伊丹空港 Itami Kūkō?) because most of its land is located in Itami, Hyōgo Prefecture. The terminal complex is located in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, and the only access from the Itami side is via a long tunnel that passes below the runway and apron.

Despite its "international" designation, the airport's scheduled air traffic is entirely domestic. Kansai International Airport (27mi away) took over Osaka's international traffic in 1994 and competes with Itami for domestic traffic. Itami also faces competition from Kobe Airport (16mi away), a smaller domestic airport opened in 2006.

During 2005, this airport had 66,259 aircraft movements (32 cities). The total number of passengers was 18,948,300. Freight volume was at 154,412 tonnes total.[2]

Contents

[edit] History

Itami Airport opened as the No. 2 Osaka Airport (第二大阪飛行場 Dai-ni Ōsaka Hikōjō?) in 1939, and was primarily used by the Imperial Japanese Army during its early years.

U.S. occupation forces took over Osaka Airport after the end of World War II in 1945, renaming it Itami Air Base. In 1954, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio stopped at Itami during their honeymoon, and in 1956, the base was used in the filming of the movie Sayonara.

Itami was renamed Osaka Airport (大阪空港 Ōsaka Kūkō?) following its return to Japanese control in 1958, and officially became an international airport in 1959. In its heyday Itami was served by a variety of major international carriers, including Pan Am, United, British Airways, Air India, Cathay Pacific and Korean Air. Northwest Airlines briefly operated a New York-Itami-Sydney route in the early 1990s, which raised Japanese protest because less than 30% of passengers on the Australia-Japan segment were originating in the U.S. [1]

As Japan's economy grew rapidly, the area around Itami Airport became an increasingly dense residential area for commuters to Osaka. This limited its expansion, and led to unrest among the neighboring communities, which organized protests against the expansion of the airport and the use of widebody aircraft there. In a widely-publicized 1981 ruling, the Supreme Court of Japan ordered the government to pay damages to residents of surrounding communities and impose limits on operating hours at the airport.

Because of these problems, planners began work in the 1970s to relocate Itami to an offshore location. This plan led to the opening of Kansai International Airport in 1994 on an artificial island in Osaka Bay.

Air Force One aircraft parked at Osaka Airport
Air Force One aircraft parked at Osaka Airport

There were originally plans to close Itami Airport following the opening of Kansai, but nearby communities opposed such a move for economic reasons, so Itami was retained as a domestic-only airport after Kansai opened in 1994. All Nippon Airways retains a large maintenance base at Itami which occasionally services aircraft ferried in from overseas without passengers.

The only international passenger flights to use Itami since 1994 have been in connection with state visits. Air Force One visited Itami in November 2005, and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao landed at Itami in April 2007.[2]

On the other hand,there are Some flights per a year for aircraft maintenance,for example, It made a flight to transport a large-sized helicopter to deliver Tokyo Fire Department from Marseille, France by Antonov An-22, for service this helicopter at Osaka International Airport. [3]

With the ongoing expansion of Kansai Airport and the opening of a third regional airport in Kobe, the Osaka metropolitan area is facing a surplus of flight slots. In September 2004, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that aircraft with more than two engines would be banned at Itami Airport effective April 2006.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

[edit] North Terminal

(Gates 14–25)

  • Japan Airlines (Akita, Amami-Oshima, Aomori, Asahikawa, Fukuoka, Fukushima, Hakodate, Hanamaki, Kagoshima, Misawa, Miyazaki, Nagasaki, Niigata, Okinawa, Ōzora (Memanbetsu merged into Ōzora in 2006), Sapporo-Chitose, Tokyo Haneda, Tokyo-Narita)

[edit] South Terminal

(Gates 5–13)

  • All Nippon Airways (Fukuoka, Iwami, Kagoshima, Kochi, Kumamoto, Matsuyama, Miyazaki, Nagasaki, Niigata, Oita, Okinawa, Saga, Sapporo-Chitose, Sendai, Tokyo-Haneda, Tokyo-Narita)
  • Ibex Airlines (Fukushima, Matsuyama, Oita, Sendai, Tokyo-Narita)

[edit] Ground transportation

[edit] Rail

Osaka Monorail train leaving Osaka Airport Station
Osaka Monorail train leaving Osaka Airport Station

The only direct rail connection to the airport is the Osaka Monorail, which stops in the northern suburbs of Osaka. Most travelers take the monorail to Hotarugaike Station (3 min., ¥200) and connect to the Hankyu Railway, or to Senri-Chuo StationM08 (12 min., ¥320) and connect to the Kita-Osaka Kyuko Railway (jointly operated with the Osaka Municipal Subway Midosuji Line). Hankyu runs express trains from Hotarugaike to Umeda Station in central Osaka, a 16-minute trip.

« Service »
Osaka Monorail Main Line (11)
Terminus - Hotarugaike (12)
v • d • e
Stations on the Osaka Monorail Main Line

There have been plans to connect ●the JR Takarazuka Line and ■Hankyu Takarazuka Line to Itami Airport, as well as to extend the monorail to central Itami, but these plans have never been realized. Hyōgo Prefecture is currently studying the feasibility of building a separate light rail connection between the airport and central Itami, which would connect to the JR Takarazuka Line and possibly the ■Hankyu Itami Line.

[edit] Bus

A number of scheduled buses run to and from the airport daily. The following travel times are approximate and may be longer due to traffic jams.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Japan May Move Against Northwest Airlines," The New York Times, March 12, 1993.
  2. ^ 京で一服 友好の舞台 温家宝首相 入洛, Kyoto Shimbun, April 13, 2007.
  3. ^ Asahi newspaper 22,Jan.,08

[edit] External links

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