New Kansai International Airport Co. was established on April 1 and the operations of Kansai and Itami airports will be integrated. It is hoped that the new firm will succeed so that it can serve as a model for privatizing the operations of other airports such as Shin Chitose (Hokkaido), Sendai and Kumamoto.
The government used its stocks in the former Kansai International Airport Co. to set up the new firm, which will receive the land of Itami airport from the government. In July, the operations of Kansai and Itami airports will be integrated. The new firm plans to sell the right to manage the two airports for 30 to 50 years to private-sector investors in fiscal 2014 at the earliest.
Establishment of the new firm — government-owned but with a private firm's management style — addresses criticism that the former Kansai International Airport Co. is financially weak. The old firm had interest-bearing debts of more than ¥1 trillion and had to pay some ¥20 billion in interest annually. The government provided subsidies of ¥7.5 billion to ¥9 billion every year.