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Air transport in Japan has made rapid progress in terms of passenger and cargo volumes, against the backdrop of the increasing pace of life. Defined tody as the principal means of long-distance transport, air transport is expected to continue to grow smoothly as Japan becomes further internationalized (Fig. 16, Fig. 17).
The direction in which a new aviation policy should be developed in respons
to the rapid growth of air transport has been set forth in recommendations presented
by the Council for Transport Policy. And the Ministry of Transport, acting upon
the recommendations, is currently making efforts to increase the convenience
of users through the stimulation of competition among airlines in terms of the
complete privatization of Japan Air Lines, international service route operations
by plural airlines (Table 9),
snd double- and triple-tracking of services on domestic routes.
As regards international air fares, the Ministry of Transport extended guidance
on September 13, 1988, to the airlines involved so that they would rectify bi-direction
differences in air ticket prices with emphasis on fare reductions for flights
departing from Japan. In accordance with this ministerial guidance, the airlines
are gradually cutting such fares in an effort to correct these differences.
As a result, with the level of fares for flights departing from Japan as 100,
the levels of fares for flights departing from other countries are set at 108
for Los Angeles, 116 for Paris and 103 for Sydney. In this way, considerable
improvements have been made.
Furthermore, Japan makes it the basic objective of air talks to secure transport
capacities that meet transport demands, in accordance with the basic principle
of the aviation agreement in terms of equal opportunities for flight operations.
In addition, Japan is pushing forward with air talks with other countries in
accordance with the afore-mentioned recommendations of the Council for Transport
Policy. With respect to Japan-U.S. relations in aviation services in particular,
the largest scaled agreement in the past four years was reached at talks in
November 1989, on the opening of new passenger and cargo service routes.
Again, with regard to local air service systems, including commuter services,
there is a need for the local circles concerned and commuter service operators
to study steps to develop such system. The Ministry of Transport, for its part,
will also tackle the development of local air services which it regards as opening
up a new sector in the nation: s civil aviation industry.
Japan's air transport demand is concentrated on New Tokyo International Airport (Narita), Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) and Osaka International Airport. However, these airports have reached saturation point in their operational capacities, making the promotion of three major projects -the construction of Kansai International Airport, the expansion of New Tokyo International Airport and the offshore extension of Tokyo International Airport -all the more pressing. Because of this, the Ministry of Transport is currently pushing ahead with the 5th 5-year Airports Development Program with priority emphasis on the execution of three major projects, while it has continued pushing forward systematically with the improvement of local airports, implementation of environmental countermeasures and the construction of aircraft maintenance facilities (Table 10).
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