Seven countries including China, Russia and Australia have won 26 of the 50 new international slots created at Tokyo's Haneda Airport in the run-up to next year's Olympic and Paralympic Games, transport ministry officials said Monday.
Finland, India, Italy and Turkey have also been handed slots, alongside one region, Scandinavia. Sweden or Denmark is likely to get that regional opening.
The remaining 24 slots had already been allocated to flights to and from the United States. The government is trying to attract 40 million annual visitors to Japan by 2020.
The new slots will enter daily service at Haneda, officially called Tokyo International Airport, from late March.
Airlines will decide which cities they will fly to, according to the officials at the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry.
Flights to and from China will receive eight slots, those to and from Russia and Australia will get four each, and the others will get two each, the officials said, adding that — except for China — the slots will initially start service time in the daytime from 6 a.m. to 10:55 p.m.
Japanese airlines will receive half of the 50 slots, with All Nippon Airways Co. landing 13.5 of them and Japan Airlines Co. getting 11.5.
New flight paths over central Tokyo will be introduced in spring 2020, as the government plans to increase the number of international flight slots to 99,000 from about 60,000 before the Tokyo Games.
About 15 km from central Tokyo, Haneda was the world's fifth-busiest airport in terms of total passenger traffic in 2018, according to the Airports Council International.