Nagoya Airfield

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Nagoya Airfield
名古屋飛行場
Nagoya Hikōjō
IATA: NKM – ICAO: RJNA
Summary
Airport type Public
Location Nagoya
Elevation AMSL 53 ft / 16 m
Coordinates 35°15′18″N 136°55′28″E / 35.255, 136.92444
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
16/34 8990 2,740 Paved

Nagoya Airfield (名古屋飛行場 Nagoya Hikōjō?) is an airport which lies within the local government areas of Toyoyama, Komaki, Kasugai and Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It was an international airport but is now a domestic secondary airport serving Nagoya. (The current primary civil airport for Nagoya is Chūbu Centrair International Airport in Tokoname.)

It is the main hub for J-Air, the only airline that offers scheduled transport service from the airfield. It is also used for general aviation and as an airbase.

Contents

[edit] Aliases (the other and past names)

  • "Nagoya Airfield" is the name as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of the national government, as of 2008, recognises it as an "other airport".
  • The airfield was Nagoya Airport (名古屋空港 Nagoya Kūkō?) until the opening of Centrair on February 17, 2005.
  • It has been conventionally called Komaki Airport (小牧空港 Komaki Kūkō?).
  • Aichi Prefectural Government, the current owner of the airport nicknames it Prefectural Nagoya Airport (県営名古屋空港 Ken-ei Nagoya Kūkō?).
  • The Japan Self-Defense Forces shares the runway as a part of Japan Air Self-Defence Force Komaki Base (航空自衛隊小牧基地 Kōkū Jiei-tai Komaki Kichi?). The Boeing KC-767 tanker is based there.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

Airport diagram
Airport diagram

[edit] Domestic

  • Japan Airlines
    • J-AIR (Akita, Kochi, Matsuyama, Nagasaki, Niigata, Obihiro, Tokyo-Narita, Yamagata)

[edit] History

Nagoya Airport served as the main airport for Nagoya until the opening of Chubu Centrair International Airport on February 17, 2005. This airport IATA Airport Code used to be NGO (now overtaken by the new Centrair airport), and its ICAO Airport Code used to be RJNN when it was classified as a second class airport; the new designations are NKM for regional flights and RJNA designation for general aviation flights. Aichi Prefecture manages the facilities and regularly handles international business flights.

Nagoya Airport was actually opened in 1944 as a military airport. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Nagoya Airport was a busy international airport because of overflow from Japan's other international airports, New Tokyo International Airport (now Narita International Airport) near Tokyo and Osaka International Airport (Itami Airport) near Osaka. Since the opening of Kansai International Airport in 1994, the airport's main traffic source has been the nearby automotive and manufacturing industries, causing carriers such as United Airlines and Delta Air Lines(Portland (OR)) to stop flying to Nagoya. Some discount holiday flights still operated from Nagoya, drawing passengers from the Kansai region. On the other hand, the cargo handling capacity of Nagoya Airport was not enough to satisfy the demands from the regional economy and air cargo shifted to Narita and Kansai. In addition, the airport was hampered by its location in a residential area of Aichi Prefecture, limiting the number of flights that can use the airport, as well as the hours in which they can fly.

Because of these reasons, a new airport, Chubu Centrair International Airport, was built on an island south of Nagoya. On February 17, 2005, all of Nagoya Airport's commercial transport flights moved to Centrair. On the same day, the old airport became a general aviation and airbase facility, [1] as well as was renamed to the current names and accepting J-AIR's headquarters and hub relocation from Hiroshima-Nishi Airport. A dedicated business aviation terminal and commuter flights within Japan then became the key features of Nagoya 's secondary airport.

[edit] Events

On April 26, 1994, an Airbus Airbus A300B4-622R jet operating as China Airlines flight 140 (B-1816) from Taipei to Nagoya crashed onto the south-east corner of the airport apron whilst trying to land on Runway 34, killing 264 of the 271 people on board, making it the second deadliest crash on Japanese soil.

On October 31, 2007, a Mitsubishi F-2 fighter jet, whilst on a test flight, crashed and exploded in flames during takeoff. Both pilots survived the incident with only minor injuries.

[edit] External links