NARITA, CHIBA PREF. – The number of people who used Narita airport for international flights during the summer holiday season between July 13 and Sept. 2 rose 20.1 percent from a year earlier to 3.9 million, preliminary immigration data shows.
The number of days on which users of the airport surpassed 75,400, the daily average in summer in the past five years, accounted for 51.9 percent of the total number of days during the period, according to the Narita office of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau.
The usage rate was up from 10.2 percent a year before, which was affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. It also topped the 48.9 percent marked in the same period of 2009, after the global financial crisis deepened.
The number of Japanese travelers who departed from and arrived at Narita during the period rose 12.9 percent to 2.74 while the figure for foreigners surged 41.4 percent to 1.16 million.
The proportion of days on which the number of Japanese travelers using the airport was above the daily average of the previous five years came to 51.9 percent, the second highest level in five years, after 68.8 percent in 2010.
But for foreign travelers the proportion stood at 28.8 percent, the second smallest after zero in 2011.