OSAKA (Kyodo) Kansai International Airport Co. plans to considerably shorten its minimum connection time for passengers in transit, company officials said.
The plan, which includes reducing the minimum connection time for international flights to one hour from the current 1 1/2 hours, is designed to help the company compete with newly opened Chubu Centrair International Airport near Nagoya and airports overseas.
The airport hopes to draw more passengers by matching Chubu airport's transit times while increasing the number of flights available to transit passengers, they said.
Transit passengers are not allowed to board when the time between their arrival and departure is less than the minimum connecting time set by the airport.
The airport will start negotiating with its client airlines to shorten minimum connection times to one hour from 1 1/2 hours between international flights, and to one hour and 15 minutes from the current 1 1/2 hours between domestic and international flights.
If the times are shortened as planned, passengers who arrive on an international flight at 10 a.m., for instance, will be able to board an international flight leaving the airport after 11 a.m., instead of after 11:30 a.m., as at present.