April 11, 2006

Airports.

There are 2 airports which had newly opened in Japan.
One is Kobe Airport, which had opened on February 16. Another is New Kita-Kyushu Airport, which had opened on March 16.

Both of them are on "Airport Island", which are artificial islands, to dissolve noise pollution, or to avoid collision with wild birds.
This is the mode of airports in Japan, since Kansai International Airport was opened on 1994.

But at the same time, airports are getting farther.
For example, Narita Airport is about 60km apart from Tokyo, and it takes more than 1hr.

Well, new airports are constructed nearer to the city center, which are usually connected with trains.
Kobe Airport is just 16 minutes away from Sannomiya, Kobe.

The real problem may be having many small airports.
Long runway is necessary for arrival and departure of a Jumbo Jet, but most of the airports have short runways, like 3000m or 2500m, and Narita Airport is the only airport with a runway of 4000m.

Hanshin area, which includes Osaka and Kobe, have 3 airports with the radius of 25km, which are Osaka International Airport, Kansai International Airport and Kobe Airport.
All international lines are operating on Kansai International Airport, but since this is quite far from the city center, domestic lines are more in favor of arriving and departing from either Osaka International Airport or Kobe Airport.

Too much was paid for the construction fee.
And we are the one who is gonna pay for it, which is called "tax".

I doubt if we really need that much airports.

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