While Japan is currently struggling to return its economy to growth mode, one sector in the Asian nation is booming: foreign tourism. Over the past three years, the number of foreign visitors to Japan has more than doubled, with an economic impact of $25 billion. Last year saw more than one million visitors from the U.S. alone, an all-time high.
While the majority of that influx came via airlines, business aviation has also seen recent spikes. From 2010 through 2015, the average number of business aviation flights grew by approximately 3 percent, and 7.7 percent for international private flights. Last year, business aviation operations in total increased by more than 25 percent.
At Tokyo’s major gateways of Narita and Haneda International Airports, business aviation activity saw more than a 20-percent increase between 2014 and 2015, while international business flights were up more than 35 percent at Narita.
Faced with this influx of traffic, authorities at the airports have made several improvements over the past several years. In 2012, a new private aviation terminal, Premier Gate, opened at Narita with dedicated customs, immigration and quarantine services for private aviation customers. Two years later, a new taxi route to the private terminal was established, cutting the travel time from the apron in half.
Since parking has been problematic, the airport has established five new parking spots for business aircraft, which can accommodate large-cabin jets. Last year, AGP Co. began business aircraft operations, offering long- and short-term hangar space for up to five aircraft in a former airline hangar.
At Haneda, travel time from the private aviation terminal to aircraft parking has been cut from 12 to two minutes, while new customs and immigration facilities at the international private aviation terminal have drastically reduced waiting time. Two preferential parking spots were added at the terminal, and a new passenger lounge was also installed this summer. Additionally, the airport has increased the number of parking spaces for large aircraft from three to nine, and as a result, earlier this year the maximum period of parking was cut from 10 days to five.
While slots were a challenge at Haneda, earlier this year they were doubled for business aviation customers, from eight to 16 per day, with the maximum number of arrival slots boosted from four to 15. In further consideration of the growing demands of business aviation, in April the segment was granted a higher priority in the slot-granting priority hierarchy, and airport authorities shortened the period required for flight schedule confirmation.
At Kansai International Airport, a new fast lane expediting immigration service for private aviation and VIP passengers was instituted in March, while incremental improvements in infrastructure have been instituted at other major airports.