Foes of Airport Now Fight Plan to Share Load

When state guests fly into Tokyo from abroad, they arrive right on Tokyo Bay, just a short trot from downtown.

But for the millions of ordinary foreigners who visit each year, there’s a different airport. Instead of landing in Tokyo, they are plunked down 40 miles away amid rice paddies in a neighboring prefecture.

And pity the poor tourist who gets in a taxi. The nearly two-hour ride into town will cost about $300. The bus ride will set you back $28.

Controversial from the start--and built despite violent opposition from local farmers and leftist militants--Tokyo’s international airport at Narita has never been close enough or big enough to please just about anybody.

But while a wave of calls for Tokyo’s domestic airport to take over more international flights is raising cheers from travelers, it has many politicians and townspeople in Narita preparing to do battle--this time for the airport.

“There is a history of blood and tears,” said Takeshi Numata, governor of Chiba, the prefecture where the international airport is located. “What was all of our hard work for?”

The potential benefits of sharing the load are obvious.

Tokyo, capital of the world’s second-largest economy and home to 33 million people, has since 1978 relied on a single runway at Narita Airport for virtually all its international flights.

The city’s domestic gateway, Haneda, has three runways and can handle twice as many flights as Narita. Thirty minutes from Tokyo’s Ginza district, Haneda is built into Tokyo Bay, making expansion relatively easy.

“There should be a new way of thinking in the 21st century,” Transport Minister Chikage Ogi said recently. “Why do state guests fly to Haneda? Because it’s convenient.”

No one is arguing that the situation should stay as is.

A second runway is being built at Narita, but it won’t be long enough to accommodate jumbo jets because a few farmers refuse to give up their plots. Thus, the 1.4-mile-long runway, to be completed next year, will do little to ease airport congestion.

“The new runway is too short,” said British Airways spokesman Kiyoshi Nishida.

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara believes that Narita is cramping Tokyo’s style. Narita ranks 13th in the world in terms of departures and landings, with fewer than at Copenhagen, Singapore and a mere quarter of those at London’s Heathrow.

“If there is any hindrance to Tokyo’s further globalization, it is its poor access to international air traffic,” Ishihara said.

Along with opening Haneda to more flights, Ishihara is trying to win commercial access to a sprawling American military air base on Tokyo’s outskirts. He has so far had little success.

To generate support for allowing international flights at Haneda, the Tokyo city government issued a proposal in January to build a fourth runway to double yearly takeoffs and arrivals to about 496,000. Narita can handle 126,000.

But officials in Chiba appear to have no intention of giving anything up.

The Chiba government, which passed a resolution recently saying that supporters of Haneda’s internationalization were “ignoring our efforts and betraying our trust,” believes that it deserves special consideration because it helped quell dissent from farmers when Narita was chosen for the airport in 1966.

The farmers, backed by leftist radicals, said the government was stealing their land and forcing a noisy airport on the community. Their often violent opposition delayed Narita’s opening by several years and caused the airport to be scaled down.

Narita has worked hard the past few years to improve its image. Though once more of a fortress in appearance than an airport, it now has new buildings, an attractive shopping area and a security presence no more visible than most airports. Chiba residents worry about the economic impact if Narita loses its role as sole international airport. Hotels, shopping malls, gift shops and a sparkling “Narita New Town” complex have sprung up on what was once farmland.

“See all those busy shops over there? They were all able to open because of the airport,” said Miyoko Nakata, a homemaker.

But aviation analysts and even the public operator of the airport, the Narita Airport Authority, say such fears are unjustified.

Turning Haneda into an international airport would have no economic effect on Narita Airport because Narita probably would continue operating at full capacity as well, an airport official said. He agreed to comment only on condition of anonymity, citing the “delicate relationship” between the airport and local authorities.

Even so, Chiba officials aren’t the only ones looking to save face by squelching expansion of Haneda.

Allowing regular international flights at Haneda is seen by many in the national government as acknowledging that Narita airport, which they backed, was a mistake. Officially, the Transport Ministry says such a move isn’t even under consideration.

“We have no plans to internationalize Haneda. Our position is that it’s Tokyo’s domestic airport,” said Masaaki Kai, an official in the Transport Ministry’s planning department.

*

On the Net:

https://https://www.narita-airport.or.jp/airport_e/index_e.html