The commuter airline business in Japan has expanded in the past few years, with more people traveling from city to city on planes that carry around 100 passengers or less.
According to the Japan Aeronautic Association, there were 1.75 million passengers on commuter flights in fiscal 2001, a 3.7-fold leap from the 474,000 of five years before.
Commuter airlines are benefiting from a better business environment, which has been helped by approval to land at Narita, the main international airport for Tokyo.