For those looking to avoid the general congestion of the Tokyo area, representatives from Japan’s Aichi Prefecture (Booth 4463) are at NBAA 2016 this week to discuss its convenient location within the country, and its suitability for Japan-bound business aviation travelers. The area has two airports: Nagoya, one of the few in Japan to be considered business aviation-specific, and the larger Chubu Centrair International Airport, which was built nearby to handle the majority of the area’s commercial traffic.
Combined, last year the two handled nearly 250 private aircraft flights, including 80 at Nagoya, according to Isao Tsutsui, Aichi Prefectural Government’s director of the department of regional development and tourism’s civil administration division. That represents a 31-percent increase over the previous year, tied in part to the ramping up of development of the Mitsubishi regional jetliner (MRJ), which is taking place at Nagoya Airport.
For business aircraft operators, Nagoya is located between the country’s two largest cities, Tokyo and Osaka, and due to its central location it is easily connected to the capital and to hubs such as Osaka and Kyoto by high-speed train. Indeed, Nagoya will be the first city linked to Tokyo by an under-construction next-generation maglev train, which will be nearly twice as fast as the current “bullet trains.” Development of the Mitsubishi MRJ at the airport has also served to increase business traffic.
Nagoya Airport, which is open daily from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m., offers a dedicated customs, immigration and quarantine facility, staffed on demand for international business arrivals. Ground handling is supplied there by FBOs Nakanihon Air Service and Aero Asahi.
Its business aviation terminal is centrally located, less than 300 feet from the ramp, and aircraft can taxi directly to parking spaces under their own power. The airport is also suited as a fueling stop for long-range business jets from the U.S. East Coast heading for mainland China. With a 9,000-foot runway, it can easily accommodate any business jet. Next year, authorities will add another ramp area of approximately 20,000 sq ft, which will more than double the number of business aircraft parking spaces to 13.
Chubu Centrair International, which offers 24-hour operations, has one FBO managed by the airport authority, as well as a dedicated business aviation hangar that can accommodate aircraft up to an ACJ/BBJ. As a Cessna Citation-authorized service facility, it offers maintenance support from FAA/JCAB certified technicians.
Tsutsui told AIN that the prefectural government early next year will begin construction at Chubu on a multi-million conference center along the lines of Pal-Expo in Geneva, which has been home to the EBACE conference for more than a decade. He believes this first airport co-located facility in the country could serve a similar purpose, hosting aviation shows in Japan.
Nagoya has been designated as a “special zone to create Asia’s number-one aerospace industrial cluster” by the Japanese government, with several heavy industry manufacturers engaged in the construction of aircraft components and subassemblies, including Mitsubishi. The world headquarters for Toyota is also located nearby.