Chubu Centrair International Airport


Chubu Centrair International Airport is an international airport on an artificial island in Ise Bay, Tokoname City in Aichi Prefecture, south of Nagoya in central Japan.
Centrair is classified as a first class airport and is the main international gateway for the Chubu region of Japan. The name "Centrair" is an abbreviation of Central Japan International Airport, an alternate translation used in the English name of the airport's operating company, Central Japan International Airport Co., Ltd.. 10.2 million people used the airport in 2015, ranking 8th busiest in the nation, and 208,000 tons of cargo was moved in 2015.

History

Chubu Centrair serves the third largest metropolitan area in Japan, centered around the city of Nagoya. The region is a major manufacturing centre, with the headquarters and production facilities of Toyota Motor Corporation and production facilities for Mitsubishi Motors and Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation.
With much lobbying by local business groups such as Toyota, especially for 24-hour cargo flights, construction started August 2000, with a budget of JPY¥768 billion, but through efficient management nearly ¥100 billion was saved. Penta-Ocean Construction was a major contractor.
According to Japanese media sources, Kodo-kai, a Yakuza faction in the Yamaguchi-gumi group, earned an immense amount of money by being the sole supplier, via a front company called Samix, of dirt, rock, sand, and gravel for the airport construction project. Although several Samix executives were criminally indicted for racketeering, the prosecutions were later dropped. According to the sources, Kodo-kai had informants working within the Nagoya police who fed the organization inside information which allowed them to stay a step ahead of investigating authorities.
When Chubu Centrair opened on 17 February 2005, it took over almost all of the existing Nagoya Airport's commercial flights, and relieved Tokyo and Kansai areas of cargo shipments. As a replacement for Nagoya Airport, it also inherited its IATA airport code NGO. The airport opened in time to service the influx of visitors for Expo 2005, located near Nagoya. The airport is speculated to have some competition with Shizuoka Airport, which opened on 4 June 2009.

Route withdrawals

There were several withdrawals from Chubu Centrair after the airport commenced its operation. American Airlines operated a route to Chicago for less than seven months in 2005, but said the service was "not as profitable as we had hoped". In 2008, after a few years of service from Chubu Centrair, several airlines cancelled certain flights and put others on hiatus, including Malaysia Airlines' suspension of flight to Kuala Lumpur, Jetstar ending its airport operation, Continental Airlines stopping its Honolulu flight and United Airlines' suspension of flights to San Francisco, citing low premium cabin demand. This flight also continued to Chicago until 2007. Emirates and Hong Kong Express Airways left the airport in 2009, although HK Express resumed service from September 2014. Japan Airlines also ended its flights to Paris in 2009 and Bangkok in 2020. Garuda Indonesia ended service from Denpasar in March 2012, but returned to Nagoya with the opening of direct flights from Jakarta in March 2019 but only lasted until March 2020. EVA Air left the airport in June 2012. TransAsia Airways subsidiary V Air withdrew from Centrair and ended operations in October 2016.
Nagoya continues to offer intercontinental flights through Delta Air Lines' services to Detroit and Honolulu, Lufthansa's service to Frankfurt and Finnair's service to Helsinki.

Aichi Sky Expo

An exposition centre inside the airport island was opened on August 30, 2019. The exposition centre has 6 exhibition halls each being 10,000 m². Events held at the venue include the 2019 edition of the Wired Music Festival on September 7 and 8.

Ongoing projects

Three construction projects are ongoing to the southeast of the main terminal: "Flight of Dreams" to be completed in summer 2018 and a low-cost carrier terminal to be completed in early 2019.

Terminals

The northern side of the terminal holds domestic flights, while the southern side holds international flights, each with dedicated ticket counters, security checkpoints and baggage carousels, and for international flights, immigration and customs facilities. Arrivals are processed on the second floor, and departures on the third. The lower level is used for maintenance, catering, and other ground operations, as well as for passenger buses to hardstands in the middle of the airport ramp. There are thirteen gates for domestic flights, and fourteen for international flights.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

;Notes:
Some destinations may be affected by COVID-19, therefore temporary suspensions are not distinguished as seasonal service.

Cargo

Ground transportation

Train

, the train station for Centrair is located on the Meitetsu Airport Line operated by Nagoya Railroad. The fastest "μSky Limited Express" service connects the airport to Meitetsu Nagoya Station in 28 minutes. All μSky Limited Express are operating at a max speed of 120 km/h by 2000 series trains, which have all seats designated and it is required to purchase an extra 360 yen "special limited express ticket". Meitetsu Nagoya Station is adjacent to JR Nagoya Station, allowing transfers to Shinkansen bullet trains bound for not only Tokyo and Osaka but also many major cities, as well as JR, Meitetsu, and Kintetsu local trains, and the Nagoya Municipal Subway.
There is a proposal for a JR line linking Centrair to Nagoya Station and the JR network through Taketoyo Line's Okkawa Station. However, there's no actual construction works have been implemented at the moment.
There's also a proposal for Aonami line linking Centrair to Nagoya Station by constructing a tunnel or bridge. Nagoya municipal government has acted the assessment of feasibility in 2019.

Bus

Centrair Limousine provides direct bus service to and from central Nagoya, Sakae, and major hotels. It is operated by a private bus company in Mie Prefecture. High-speed buses to the neighboring prefectures for 3,000 yen to Kyoto via Mie Prefecture have been operating.

Ferry

Three high-speed ferry services link Centrair to the west side of Ise Bay. One ferry connects to the passenger terminal in Tsu – a 40-minute trip. Another ferry links Matsusaka to Tokoname, taking 45 minutes.

Car

A toll road links Centrair and the mainland.

Shopping

Centrair features the 4th Floor Sky Town Shopping Center, accessible to the general public, with 61 shops and restaurants. organized into two "streets", Renga-dori and Chochin-yokocho. The Chochin-yokocho shops are individually themed to have an authentic Japanese look.

Other facilities

The Boeing Dreamlifter Operations Center is located on the airport's apron, to the south of the main terminal. This facility is used to store Japanese components of the Boeing 787 aircraft while awaiting airlift to the assembly facility in the US.

Accolades