Narita Airport faces labor, safety hurdles in plan to expand
Narita Airport is banking on an increase in takeoffs and landings to avoid falling into “oblivion,” but it faces a number of challenges regarding human resources, safety and noise pollution. The yearly cap on arrivals and departures at Narita Airport, located in Chiba Prefecture just outside of Tokyo, will be raised from the current 300,000 to 340,000 in October to cater to growing flight demand to Japan. The airport operator will also introduce a third runway in 2029 as part of Narita’s “second grand opening.” It plans to eventually scale up the annual takeoff and landing capacity to 500,000. On Jan. 24, officials from airport operator Narita International Airport Corp. (NAA), the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Chiba Prefecture and nine nearby municipalities held a meeting at the prefectural government’s office. The session approved the plan presented by the government and NAA to raise the flight cap to 340,000. “This project is crucial for us both to win the competition among Asian airports and to foster development of surrounding areas,” Chiba Governor Toshihito Kumagai said.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2025-03-07/general/narita-airport-faces-labor-safety-hurdles-in-plan-to-expand
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/logo.png
Narita Airport faces labor, safety hurdles in plan to expand
Narita Airport is banking on an increase in takeoffs and landings to avoid falling into “oblivion,” but it faces a number of challenges regarding human resources, safety and noise pollution. The yearly cap on arrivals and departures at Narita Airport, located in Chiba Prefecture just outside of Tokyo, will be raised from the current 300,000 to 340,000 in October to cater to growing flight demand to Japan. The airport operator will also introduce a third runway in 2029 as part of Narita’s “second grand opening.” It plans to eventually scale up the annual takeoff and landing capacity to 500,000. On Jan. 24, officials from airport operator Narita International Airport Corp. (NAA), the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Chiba Prefecture and nine nearby municipalities held a meeting at the prefectural government’s office. The session approved the plan presented by the government and NAA to raise the flight cap to 340,000. “This project is crucial for us both to win the competition among Asian airports and to foster development of surrounding areas,” Chiba Governor Toshihito Kumagai said.<br/>
