Narita Airport to extend operating hours for first time

October 26, 2019

Tokyo--Narita International Airport, near Tokyo, will extend its operating hours from until 11 p.m. to until midnight, beginning Sunday.

This will be the first operating hour extension at the airport in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, east of the capital, since it went into service in 1978.

The extension is part of the airport's efforts to enhance its functions to prepare for the expected increase in the number of foreign visitors ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. Other steps include extending Runway B and building a third runway.

The move is also seen as countering the increase in the number of international flights serviced at Tokyo International Airport at Haneda, which runs around the clock.

A weekly total of 30 departing and arriving flights will be assigned slots in the additional hour in late night operations at Narita. The number of departures and arrivals between 10 p.m. and the end of operations for the day will increase from 106 to 126.

Only one slot per week will be given to a new flight service, by a cargo plane. All other slots will be occupied by services originally scheduled for earlier time slots.

The extended hours make it easier for budget carriers, which are booming in popularity, to introduce flights connecting the airport to destinations in China and Southeast Asia. The airport's accessibility to and from central Tokyo via trains and buses remains an issue, however, and major airlines are taking a wait-and-see approach to taking advantage of the longer hours.

"We've just begun and it's not yet enough," Akihiko Tamura. president of Narita International Airport Corp., said regarding the change in hours. The airport operator plans to call on airlines to increase services in the late night time slots. Jiji Press