Photo/Illutration An aerial view of Kobe Airport on Sept. 15 (Yuki Shibata)

To meet the expected increase in foreign tourists after the pandemic, Kobe Airport is expected to start regular international flight service from around 2030.  

Prior to that, local officials and business leaders in the Kansai region will agree to accept international charter flights to and from the airport in 2025, when the World Exposition will be held in Osaka, according to sources.

A group charged with plotting the future of the three airports in the Kansai region will hold a meeting on Sept. 18, in which its members are expected to agree on the new policy. 

They aim to expand capacity in the Kansai region to accommodate international travelers coming by air.

The group’s members include mayors and governors of local entities in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures and business leaders in the region, including one from the Kansai Economic Federation.

The group’s aim is to discuss the roles of the three airports in the Kansai region-- Kansai Airport, Kobe Airport and Osaka Airport, also known as Itami Airport.

The three airports are all operated by a company called Kansai Airports.

After the meeting on Sept. 18, the group will submit a request to the transport ministry concerning the policy.

At the meeting, the group will agree to set the daily maximum number of arrivals and departures of regular international flights at Kobe Airport in or around 2030 at 40.

The group members will also agree to allow Kobe Airport to accept irregular charter international flights during the period of the 2025 Osaka Expo to accommodate the predicted increase in foreign visitors.

In addition, it will agree to increase the daily maximum number of arrivals and departures of domestic flights at Kobe Airport from 80 to 120.

Currently, of the three airports in the Kansai region, international flights only arrive at and depart from Kansai Airport, which is expected to be busy with international travelers around 2030. 

However, Kansai Airport, which opened in 1994, has long suffered financially as it has been unable to have as many international flights as it hoped.

To avoid taking business from Kansai Airport, both Kobe and Osaka airports have accepted domestic flights only as “airports to complement Kansai Airport.”

Before the pandemic, however, Kansai Airport’s runaways and terminal became busy as the number of foreign visitors rapidly increased.

To alleviate the strain and meet a request from the Hyogo prefectural government, the group for Kansai's three airports decided in 2019 that allowing international flights at Kobe Airport was a “medium-term agenda item to consider by 2025.”

As the number of foreign visitors at Kansai Airport is now expected to grow after the dip during the pandemic, the group has decided to increase capacity to accept visitors across the three airports including Kobe Airport.

The group has also agreed to increase the annual maximum number of arrivals and departures at Kansai Airport to 300,000, 1.3 times the current number.

This will enable Kansai Airport to stay competitive and not lose business to airports in the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area such as Narita Airport.

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