Tokyo Haneda Airport to become Asia's #1, overtaking Beijing Capital, as international grows

Tokyo Haneda is poised to regain the title of Asia's largest airport from Beijing Capital. Beijing Capital overtook Tokyo Haneda in passenger traffic in 2009, but Haneda's growth and future expansion from international services will boost its traffic, whereas at Beijing Capital there will be a reduction as some airlines move from it to the new facility, Beijing Daxing.

But rankings and titles have limited implications. Tokyo Haneda will receive approximately 53 new daily international round trips in 2020 in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

As with the previous international Haneda expansion, many of Haneda's new flights will be existing flights transferred from Narita. Allocating the slots will be political, domestically and internationally, as Japan shapes its aviation policy considering ANA versus JAL; full service versus low cost; ANA and JAL JV partners versus independent airlines.

Even before those discussions begin, ANA and its partners have received an advantage with planned expansion works that will mean that ANA's domestic Haneda terminal will also handle international flights, allowing same-terminal domestic-international connections.