Japan's Third Major International Airport Opens Its Doors

The long-awaited Central Japan International Airport opened its doors on Feb. 17 after nearly 20 years and more than $6.5 billion worth of construction. Expectations are high for the facility, which attempts to blend traditional Japanese aesthetics with modern efficiencies and technology.

Centrair, as it is more informally known, is built on a man-made island in Ise Bay, 21 miles south of the city of Nagoya. It's currently operating with a single 11,500-ft. runway. Nagoya, a bustling hub for the auto industry—specifically Toyota—and home to more than 2.1 million people, is expected to provide plenty of traffic. The airport is built to handle 20 million passengers and 130,000 aircraft arrivals and departures annually. Both those numbers are likely to increase in coming years as the facility and number of runways expand. Indeed, they may have to in order to be competitive with Japan's other international airports, Narita International and Kansai International.

This facility was designed to be less about volume and more about convenience, especially for the connecting traveler. Narita and Kansai long have been considered inconvenient for flyers connecting between international and domestic flights, so Centrair is intended to be the exception. Centrair links to 24 cities around Japan and 28 overseas destinations. Narita and Kansai may offer more international flights, but their domestic options are more limited, which typically means extended average layover times. At Centrair, the maximum layover time is expected to be 60 minutes.

To further aid those travelers transferring between domestic and international flights, all gates are located adjacent to one another in the same terminal and on the same floor. Plus, it is a 24-hour facility, which means more flexible schedules, further eliminating long waits for connections.

Twenty-four domestic and international carriers currently service Centrair. Foreign airlines include Air Canada, American, United and Singapore airlines. Northwest Airlines, which recently designated the new facility its sole destination in the region. Northwest also offers more flights from the new airport than any other U.S. carrier.

Despite being designed to avert long layovers, Centrair comes with enough amenities to make the time pass quickly if you do have to wait. Most notable is "Miya no Yu," a dramatic bathing facility rooted in Japanese tradition. Other relaxation facilities include "Yurara," a massage and hair salon, and "Yumeya," described simply by airport operators as "a resting room." Located on the same floor is a host of both Asian and Western-style restaurants and about 100 retail shops.

Business travelers won't lose any time in the terminal either. Wireless LAN service is available at 15 separate locations, and there are six locations offering coin-operated Internet hook-ups. On the third floor is a full-service business center, offering an impressive array of services. Passengers can use one of two 15-person-capacity conference rooms—complete with electronic blackboards and interpreters-for-hire. Mobile phones and PCs are available for rent there, as are photo-developing services and digital data production.

However, access to the maritime airport already has been the subject of some complaints. It is easily accessible by car and even high-speed boat, but problems with rail access arose before the first flight took off.

Ten days before opening, the single rail line serving Centrair hastily announced it was doubling the size of rapid service trains during morning rush hour. Estimates of how many passengers the trains could carry daily have varied, but one places it as low as 24,000 a day – about one-third of expected daily travelers.

Estimates of 4,000 passengers an hour also are being called inadequate for high-volume periods. The Meitetsu Kuko line, the sole rail provider, is promising to fix the problem. Japan's other international airports are each served by multiple rail lines, though travel time from Nagoya is about half what it takes to get from Tokyo to the next international airport.

Centrair is the first Japanese airport not financed exclusively by the government. Instead, it is 50 percent owned by private interests; the other half belongs to central and regional government. The completed project is being hailed as a model of efficiency, as construction outlays were reduced by 120 billon yen (US$1.15 billion) following the implementation of cost-cutting techniques perfected by Toyota.