64 AIRLINER WORLD SEPTEMBER 2017
transferred to the facility and most
of the commercial traffic also moved
across into Nagoya’s new Centrair gate-
way. One of the facility’s major advan-
tages is that it operates around the
clock. In 2016, the airport handle 10.83
million passengers making it the eighth
busiest in Japan.
The old facility remained open and
today is an important hub for Fuji
Dream Airlines – the only carrier oper-
ating there – it is also a busy general
aviation facility as well as a Japanese
Air Self-Defense Force base. Mitsubishi
Aircraft Corporation has also estab-
lished a major manufacturing presence
at the old airport where it is building its
family of regional jets, the MRJ.
Airlines and routes
Since the airport first opened in
2005, there have been several carriers
To clarify the meaning of the airport’s official
full name – Chubu Centrair International Airport,
Nagoya – is the facility in the Chubu region,
the central part of Japan’s main island Honshu.
Centrair is a combination of central and airport,
while Nagoya is the nearest major city. For the
purposes of this article we have used either
Centrair or Nagoya to make it easier to read.Chubu
Centrair
International
that have stopped flying to and from
Centrair. These include American
Airlines, which operated a short-
lived link to Chicago, while Malaysia
Airlines, EVA Air and Garuda Indonesia
all launched services but have sub-
sequently stopped them. Today, the
facility supports a surprising number
of international airlines and continues
to attract new carriers and routes, most
notably from across the Asia Pacific
region. However, the number of inter-
continental links is limited, with the
airport’s focus on regional and domes-
tic links (see box).
The growing number of tourists
wishing to travel to Japan from China
has unsurprisingly resulted in an
increasing presence from that nation’s
carriers. The facility proved its capa-
bilities between March and May, when,
for just a few weeks, it handled the
huge Airbus A380s belonging to Thai
Airways International.
One airline which has yet to take
off, but will no doubt offer a range of
domestic flights, including to Nagoya,
is AirAsia Japan. The first attempt was
made by the Malaysian carrier
to establish a presence in Japan a
few years ago, but the idea was aban-
doned, and its partner in the project
All Nippon Airways went on to estab-
lish its own subsidiary, Vanilla Air in
December 2013. A second attempt has
been more successful, and during the
author’s visit to Centrair in June 2017,
two AirAsia Japan Airbus A320s were
parked ready to launch services. The
new company has chosen Centrair as
its home base.A regular connection to the US does
exist, albeit not one that can be used
by fare-paying passengers. Large
components of the Boeing 787
programme – notably the jet’s forward
fuselage, centre wing box and wingsLarge expanses of
glass mean plenty of
natural light floods the
Centrair terminal.The main check-in
hall is an impressive
sight. It is divided into
eight separate zones,
three for domestic
services and five for
international flights.Thai Airways
International’s Boeing
777-3D7, HS-TKC
(c/n 29211), rotates
from Centrair’s main
runway on a flight
back to Bangkok.
The airport is located
on an island in Ise
Bay, which is a busy
shipping route to
Nagaoya’s port.The growing numbers
of tourists wishing
to travel to Japan
from China has
unsurprisingly resulted
in an increasing
presence from that
nation’s carriers.