Tokyo to Remodel International Airport with 2020 in View

The Haneda Airport, Tokyo's aviation gate to the world,  is going to undergo major remodeling on its international facilities to accommodate more international flights toward the year 2020.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport bared January 7 that the Tokyo International Airport is put to a major remodeling with the Olympics and Paralympics in the year 2020 in view. The plan is to beef up the airport's capacities to handle international flights on the increase by 36 thousand a year. It involves an ambitious rearranging of the terminals - part of the 2nd Terminal currently used for domestic flights to be made available for international flights.

The experts expect part of the 2nd Terminal at the south end should be made two stories higher to accommodate space for immigration examination and customs offices. Two of the parking aprons linked directly with the terminal are to be exclusively allocated for international flights and five others be shared with domestic and international flights.

A concrete plan is to be worked out by spring and the remodeling work is due to start in time for the airport to function as planned. The remodeling plan done, the Tokyo International will operate its terminals in such different way so as to create confusion on the part of the passengers. The ministry advises all offices concerned to take every precaution to prevent confusion.

Lately, more foreign tourists have come to favor Haneda over Narita or reasons of distance and time required to the center of Tokyo. With the Olympics in view, the proposed remodeling of the Haneda Airport is almost a must from the point of view of the ease of inbound trafficking. The government foresees inbound to zoom up to 40 million by 2020. It's a quite a figure and makes one wonder if the proposed remodeling project is enough.  (Nathan Shiga)