With the opening of Central Japan International Airport (Chubu airport) last week, Japan's aviation industry entered a new age. The new terminal will serve as a gateway to the 2005 World Exposition (Aichi Expo), which opens next month. Chubu airport is a new symbol of Nagoya, a vigorous commercial and industrial region that is home to many of Japan's representative companies, including Toyota Motor Corp.
The sobering thought is that Chubu airport, along with Narita and Kansai airports, is beset by problems that, according to analysts, stem largely from the lack of consistency and strategy that has bedeviled the nation's aviation policy. The primary challenge for Chubu -- and for Narita and Kansai, for that matter -- is to provide customer satisfaction by dint of ingenuity and resourcefulness.
Chubu airport is a 24-hour airport built on a reclaimed land in Ise Bay, off Tokoname City, Aichi Prefecture. It is operated by a company that is 50 percent owned by private interests and the rest by the central and local governments. The new airport, like a compact car, is said to have the minimum necessary facilities, including a 3,500-meter runway.