OSAKA — A delegation of Kansai business and government officials was to visit Tokyo on Tuesday to ask that funding for the second-phase of construction at Kansai International Airport be continued.
The Finance and Transport ministries, citing a lack of demand, have discussed the possibility of delaying opening the airport's second runway until 2010, a move local Kansai governments oppose. The delegation was to ask that the agencies guarantee to provide the necessary money to complete the construction by 2007.
The delegation was to include Osaka Gov. Fusae Ohta, Yoshihisa Akiyama, head of the Kansai Economic Federation, and other local government and business officials. They were to meet Shinzo Abe, deputy chief Cabinet secretary, Chikage Ogi, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport minister, and Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa.
Originally, the national government and Kansai airport officials predicted the airport would see 160,000 takeoffs and landings a year by 2007. However, the ministry is now reportedly going to revise that estimate to between 130,000 and 140,000.
The official estimate will be released June 14, ministry officials said.