Some Domestic Flights Resume at Kansai Airport

September 7, 2018

Izumisano, Osaka Pref.- Kansai International Airport partially resumed domestic flight services on Friday after a two-day suspension caused by damage from a powerful typhoon earlier this week.

Kansai Airports, the operator of the airport, said it is preparing to restart some international flights as early as Saturday.

A total of 19 domestic flights are scheduled for Friday.

Of them, Peach Aviation, a unit of ANA Holdings Inc., will operate 17 flights including those connecting the airport with Naha, in the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, and with Sendai, in the eastern prefecture of Miyagi.

Japan Airlines will operate two flights connecting Kansai airport and Tokyo International Airport at Haneda.

Domestic flights restarted with the departure of a Peach Aviation plane for the central city of Niigata soon before noon, carrying 35 passengers.

Of the two runways at Kansai airport, built on an artificial island, Runway A went under water as deep as some 50 centimeters due to high tides. Equipment used for plane departures and arrivals was also flooded and significantly damaged.

Domestic flights will use Terminal 2 and Runway B, both of which suffered no major damage in the typhoon.

Many of the international flights to be restarted soon are expected to be those of budget carriers that use Terminal 2.

The operator said it aims to repair Runway A and reopen part of Terminal 1 in about a week.

The access bridge to the airport has been heavily damaged as a tanker buffeted by strong winds crushed into the structure. On the bridge, the southern side of the roads as well as the railway line became impassable due to the damage.

The bridge is currently off-limits to private passenger vehicles.

A majority of flight passengers use special shuttle bus services linking the airport with Izumisano Station operated by Nankai Electric Railway Co. and Hineno Station operated by West Japan Railway Co. or JR West.

Traffic congestion was expected on the unharmed northern side of the bridge roads, used temporarily for two-way traffic, but no major confusion has been reported, according to officials. Jiji Press