I have a passion for Japanese culture
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TOKYO—Narita International Airport has long been the scourge of frequent fliers and business travelers because of its distance from Japan's capital, but now Tokyo is offering an alternative after decades of delay.
On Thursday, Haneda Airport—a mere 20 minutes from downtown Tokyo—is set to open its doors to scheduled international flights and increase its capacity by 40%, in a move that analysts have called the "big bang" in aviation liberalization in Japan.
Despite Japan's reputation for efficient infrastructure, the country has lagged behind its Asian peers when it comes to its main international airport, which is located among rice paddies about 90 minutes from central Tokyo.
Traditional Japanese tea lounge is seen inside the new international terminal building of Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan. The terminal is due to open on Oct. 21.
"If Narita disappeared, I wouldn't mind," said Hiromichi Shirakawa, an economist at Credit Suisse in Tokyo who travels abroad six or seven times a year. "Access to Haneda is so much easier. Think of the opportunity cost of travel time: it takes over an hour [to go to Narita], versus 15 minutes" to reach Haneda, he added.
Haneda, which had been operating just a handful of international charter flights to Asian destinations such as Beijing and Hong Kong, plans to unveil its new international terminal Thursday. The introduction of scheduled international service will be staggered from Oct. 31, and by next spring, passengers will be able to fly from Haneda to Paris, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, Singapore and Bangkok, among other destinations.
The new runway will create an additional 110,000 landing slots a year, 60,000 of which will be used for international flights. By 2013, the government aims to increase international slots to 90,000.
Japan has consistently been left off the top-10 international-airports list, which is dominated by Asian gateways. In 2010, Changi Airport in Singapore, Incheon International Airport in South Korea and Hong Kong International Airport were the top three airports in the world respectively, according to the Skytrax World Airport Awards.
Part of the impetus to expand Haneda was to raise Japan's competitiveness against its Asian peers, particularly as low-cost carriers in the region are flourishing. Because of regulations, Japan has the highest landing fees in the world: It costs 770,000 yen, or about $9,400, to land a Boeing 747-400 at Narita, compared with 70,000 yen at Heathrow Airport in London.
Members of the information desk work in the departure lobby of the new international terminal building of Haneda Airport.
The government hopes the changes at Haneda will encourage more visitors to Japan, chiefly from Asia. It signaled a shift in policy when the Democratic Party of Japan came into power last year. Narita had been the brainchild of Japanese bureaucrats when it opened in 1978, and efforts to expand Haneda had, for years, been shelved because of the political controversy it would cause.
"Haneda will mark its first step toward becoming a 24-hour international hub," said Sumio Mabuchi, Japan's transport minister, in a speech last weekend.
But there is one major drawback: Flights to the U.S., Europe and certain Asian destinations will only be allowed between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. until at least 2013. That is because there isn't enough capacity during the day to add international flights, according to a Japanese transport-ministry official.
"We're of course thrilled that Haneda will be used for international flights, but for European Union carriers, passengers land in the middle of the night in Europe. Haneda is not an international airport due to this," said Bjorn Kongstad, policy director at the European Business Council in Japan.
American Airlines is set to launch iservice from Haneda to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport in January. The flight is scheduled to leave Haneda at 6:40 a.m. and land at JFK at 11:30 p.m. "The times are not ideal, but we're happy to do it," said Will Ris, senior vice president for government affairs at American, a unit of AMR Corp.
Separately, on Wednesday, the chairman of Japan Airlines Corp. said the airline plans to boost its capital by an additional 50 billion yen ($613 million), on top of an expected 350-billion-yen injection from a state-backed turnaround body, as it restructures itself out of bankruptcy protection.
Kazuo Inamori also said the company, together with the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp., is trying to drum up new loans from JAL's reluctant creditors as it plans to refinance its debt of about 300 billion yen by the end of March.
JAL, which filed the country's biggest nonfinancial bankruptcy petition in January, likely registered a record operating profit during the fiscal first half, sharply reversing the year-earlier loss of 95.8 billion yen, according to Mr. Inamori.
—Kana Inagaki contributed to this article.Write to Mariko Sanchanta at mariko.sanchanta@wsj.com
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