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NARITA AIRPORT INFORMATION

Narita International Airport is an international airport located in Narita, Chiba, Japan, in the eastern portion of the Greater Tokyo Area. It is located 60 kilometers from downtown Tokyo.

Narita handles the majority of international passenger traffic to and from Japan, and is also a major connecting point for air traffic between Asia and the Americas. The airport handled 35,478,146 passengers in 2007. It is the second-busiest passenger airport in Japan, busiest air freight hub in Japan, and eighth-busiest air freight hub in the world. It serves as the main international hub of Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways. It also serves as a hub for the Delta Air Lines subsidiary Northwest Airlines. Under Japanese law, it is classified as a first class airport.

The airport was known as New Tokyo International Airport until 2004. Tokyo is the source of much of Narita Airport's traffic. Narita was known as "Tokyo Narita" even before it was officially renamed to differentiate it from the original Tokyo International, which is also known as "Tokyo Haneda", after its original name, Haneda Airfield.

The construction and expansion of Narita Airport in Japanese history led to one of the most infamous (and violent) conflicts between the Japanese government and the Japanese population, its bitterness still reflected in prominent cane-armed police at the airport. This conflict perhaps reflects the centrality of land-ownership tradition in Japan. The conflict was a major factor in deciding to build the new Osaka and Nagoya airports (Kansai and Chubu respectively) offshore on reclaimed land, instead of again trying to expropriate land in heavily populated areas.

Following privatization, the airport has reached record traffic levels, and several construction projects are ongoing. Narita's 2,180 m Runway B is currently being extended to 2,500 m, which will allow increased use by heavy aircraft such as Boeing 747s. The limitations of the shorter runway were made apparent in the 2009 crash of FedEx Express Flight 80, which shut down the longer Runway A and forced some heavy aircraft to divert to other airports. The extension is scheduled to open on October 22, 2009, according to the Transport Ministry. It will allow an additional 20,000 flights per year. Several gates at Narita are also being refitted with double-decker jetbridges to accommodate the Airbus A380.

Narita Airport has two separate terminals with separate underground train stations.