USD5 billion ‘New Narita Airport’ project – in what direction will the investment take it?

While there are numerous other cities apart from Tokyo with two main commercial airports, each of them handling both domestic and international traffic, the position there is more complex than in most cases.

Tokyo Haneda was the principal airport until Narita was built in 1978 - 47 years after Haneda, and against the wishes of many local inhabitants. It then went on to be designated as the international airport.

But after an expansion project was completed there, a greater number of international flights were permitted at Haneda, which has the advantage of being closer to the city - that helped it regain international market share, although that is still heavily weighted in favour of Narita.

Latterly the government has tried to direct full service/premium business services and international hub activities to Haneda, leaving Narita to handle full service leisure routes, more often point-to-point, and what has become a growing number of LCC operations as Japan belatedly embraces that marque both domestically and internationally.

Now the time has come for a major revamp at Narita: a USD5 billion project that will decommission one of the three terminals, build a new one and then incorporate all three terminals into one.

The nature of Narita's traffic both now and in the future will dictate the design of these facilities and their operation.