Offshore expansion of Tokyo International Airport
Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport) had long served as the aviation gateway to the Japanese capital of Tokyo. However, as the income level of the general population rose, demands for aviation services surged, exhausting the capacity of Haneda Airport. When Narita Airport opened in 1978, almost all international flights were transferred to the new airport, buying extra time for Haneda Airport to solve its capacity problem. The only long-term solution is to increase the airport's capacity, and the government is implementing a project that expands the airport offshore. The offshore expansion project envisages (1) increasing the number of runways from the current two, going across each other, to three including two parallel runways, and (2) expanding the airport compound into Tokyo Bay to alleviate the noise problem. The reduction of noise would also allow the extension of airport operation hours (expanding the hours during which aircraft can take off and land). Increased operation hours would also contribute significantly to increasing capacity.
Runway plan of the offshore expansion of Tokyo International Airport
The expansion of Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport) will result in three runways; A, B, and C. Of these, runway B is the crosswind runway, while runways A and C run parallel to each other. The Haneda expansion project consists of three stages. The first two stages have already finished. Currently, the final stage is proceeding. When the project is completed, the takeoff/landing capacity will increase from 160,000 to 255,000 per annum. Runway A was completed in April 1988 during Stage 1 of the project. In Stage 2, the new passenger terminal, commonly known as Big Bird, went into operation in September 1993. The new runway C, the core project of Stage 3, was completed in March 1997 and is already in operation. The target for starting use of runway B is March 2000, which will complete the Haneda Airport expansion project.
