With the growing economic interdependence and the collapse of the cold-war structure, the walls separating individual countries in the world are coming down. This is equally true for Japan also. The 21st century will turn out be an age of increasing exchanges with the outside world in all spheres on national life, including the economy, culture and social activities. At home also, logistics, both transportation of goods and movement of people, will become increasingly important along with rising living standards and diversification of life styles.
In an age like this, air transportation will have an important bearing on the smooth flow of people and goods. To assure continuing economic and social growth in Japan and to assure a certain level of standing for the country in the world, we should not loose the opportunity to develop airports, especially international hub airports (that is, key airports in air transportation network) as well as domestic hub airports. The issue is also important from the standpoint of assuring that lack of airports will not become an bottleneck from the logistics standpoint.
International air transportation networks within the fast growing and increasingly important Asian region, and between Asia and the US and Europe are developing rapidly. Asian countries are aggressively developing building airports to cope with the growing international air transportation networks. To cope with the expected increase in demand, development of key points of international exchanges, centering on intonational hub airports is also an urgent issue for Japan, a leading S. E. Asian country.
These issues are not unique to Japan. They are also important from the standpoint of the international society, with its increasing mutual inter-dependence with Japan.
With the maturing of the economy and society in Japan, uninterrupted growth, seen in the past, is unlikely. The timing of development of international hub airports must not be missed since it should be viewed as an important part of social infrastructure development, more so because of the above factors. Moreover, development of airports will spur free competition between airlines and lead to qualitative and quantitative improvement in air transportation services for customers. It will also create employment opportunities in surrounding areas and bring about economic ripple effect.
Coming down to the development of airports, factors like accurate appraisal of the impact of the airport on the region and coexistence with the local community should be emphasized.
The basic approach to airport development in preparation for the 21st century and in consideration of the above factors is described next.
１．Development of hub airports in major metropolitan areas
- From the standpoint of airport development, construction of key airports in major metropolitan areas, that will serve as hubs of an air transportation network is the most urgent issue. It may well be considered to be the most pressing issue at present.
(1) Development of international hub airports
- International hub airports will not only serve an important function from the standpoint of meeting the demand for international air transportation services to and from Japan but will also act as nodes in a network of global air transportation network. Such airports should be the core of a high frequency multi-directional air transportation network and at the same time should have connecting flights to domestic destinations. That is, such airports should be underpinned by large domestic and international passenger demand, which means that they would be ideally located in metropolitan areas, backed by strong economic power.
Viewed against the backdrop of such considerations, only two airports, the New Tokyo International Airport and the Kansai International Airport, qualify as hub airports in Japan. However, the two airports have only one runway and the New Tokyo International Airport is already nearing capacity. The Kansai International Airport is also expected to find itself in more or less the same situation in not too distant a future. Evidently, construction of additional runways to boost handling capacity is an urgent issue for both the airports.
Nagoya airport, located in the Chubu region, a large metropolitan area after Tokyo and Osaka, is also expected to reach capacity in the near future. Therefore, the possibility of construction of a new airport, reflecting the economic power of the region, should be explored and an adequate airport should be built in this region.
Since air transportation network in Japan is still bipolar centering on the airports located in the nation's two major cities, it is necessary to promote the develpment of domestic hub airports in the Tokyo Metropolitan area and the Kinki region which will act as the hub for an international air transportation network, for example, expansion of the Tokyo International Airport into the Tokyo bay and the like.
- International air services from regional hub airports (key airports in regional blocks), like the Fukuoka and New Chitose airports, should form an international air transportation network to short and medium range destinations and be designed to cope with demand in their respective blocks. As for domestic air services, in addition to flights to the two major airports, flights from such airports should link them with other regional airports, forming a multi-polar air transportation network. Development of air transportation facilities to bolster the network envisioned above is recommended.
Moreover, construction of new regional airports and extension of existing runways should be considered to be continuing projects. Simultaneously, existing airports should be upgraded on the basis of coping with demand growth.
The fact that great hopes are placed on airports to bring about regional economic development must be kept in mind. In view of this important consideration, local ingenuity for regional development integrated with the airport project must be tapped.
- Tapping the full potential of existing airport facilities is also a must.In addition to exploring the possibility of extending the operating hours of the airport, while giving due consideration to demand trends and the acceptability of longer hours by the local community, access to the airport, an important factor from the standpoint of convenience, should be improved in cooperation with the local community.
- In order to further alleviate the problem of noise at airports, efforts should be continued at curbing the source of such noise, while at the same time taking measures for the same in areas surrounding major airports.
- Safety of air transportation should be promoted by installation of air safety systems, including next generation air safety systems. This is important for increasing flight handling capacity by enhancing efficient use of airspace, while giving top priority to safety of air flights to cope with growing and diversifying demand.
- As is evident from the damage caused by the January 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, earthquake resistance of air safety facilities, airport buildings etc., needs to be strengthened in order to prevent the breakdown of the air transportation service function in case of such calamities. Installation of back up facilities for this purpose should be promoted.
Moreover, along with the development of the technology related to the construction of mega floats, the possibility of use for airports should also be explored.
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