Japan’s Kitakyushu Airport: privatisation, improvements coming

Japan's Kitakyushu Airport has been identified by a government-commissioned survey as being appropriate for privatisation. The airport is the closest in Japan to Korea (just 200km distant) and the intention is that more low cost international travel should be developed through new gateways like Kitakyushu.

Kitakyushu is at the smaller end of the range of airports that are being, or have been, privatised in Japan, but it isn't the smallest. It is one of five 'floating' (offshore) airports in Japan and is one of a handful of Japanese airports to have 24/7/365 operations.

The government of the prefecture is proposing to secure funds to extend Kitakyushu Airport's runway from 2500m to 3000m, aimed at equipping Kitakyushu to accommodate larger aircraft required for long haul international services, including freight aircraft.

Passenger traffic at Kitakyushu has been on a firm upward trend since 2016 and in 2019 is outperforming the national passenger growth trend by 5.3 percentage points. Of the seat capacity at the airport, 17.5% is low cost. The airport has targeted LCCS since it was built, and in the country overall the seat capacity ratio has shifted in favour of LCCs.