In the 1960s, when the
Kansai region was rapidly losing trade to Tokyo, planners proposed a new airport near
Kobe and Osaka. The city's original international airport,
Itami Airport, located in the densely populated suburbs of
Itami and
Toyonaka, was surrounded by buildings; it could not be expanded, and many of its neighbours had filed complaints because of
noise pollution problems. The demand of expansion also limited by the geographical factor where the area around Itami airport is surrounded by the mountainous area, forcing the only choice viable in that time is to build it offshore. After the protests surrounding New Tokyo International Airport (now
Narita International Airport), which was built with
expropriated land in a rural part of
Chiba Prefecture, planners decided to build the airport offshore. The new airport was part of a number of new developments to revitalize Osaka, which had been losing economic and cultural ground to Tokyo for most of the century. Initially, the airport was planned to be built near Kobe, but the city of Kobe refused the plan, so the airport was moved to a more southerly location on Osaka Bay. There it could be open 24 hours per day, unlike its predecessor in the city.
Construction .
Kobe Airport is being built on the unfinished island near the middle of the photo. Central Osaka is in the upper-right corner, along with
Osaka International. An artificial island, long and wide, was proposed. Engineers needed to overcome the extremely high risks of earthquakes and
typhoons (with
storm surges of up to ). The water depth is on top of of soft
Holocene clay which holds 70% water. A million sand drains were built into the clay to remove water and solidify the clay. Three mountains were excavated for , and was used to construct island 1. Completion of the artificial island increased the area of Osaka Prefecture just enough so that it is no longer the smallest prefecture in Japan (
Kagawa Prefecture is now the smallest). The bidding and construction of the airport was a source of international trade friction during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone responded to American concerns, particularly from
Senator Frank Murkowski, that bids would be rigged in Japanese companies' favour by providing special offices for prospective international contractors, which ultimately did little to ease the participation of foreign contractors in the bidding process. Later, foreign airlines complained that two-thirds of the departure hall counter space had been allocated to Japanese carriers, disproportionately to the actual carriage of passengers through the airport. The island had been predicted to sink by the most optimistic estimate as the weight of the material used for construction compressed the seabed silts. However, by 1999, the island had sunk – almost 50% more than predicted. The project became the most expensive civil works project in modern history after twenty years of planning, three years of construction and US$15bn of investment. Much of what was learned went into the successful artificial islands in silt deposits for
New Kitakyushu Airport,
Kobe Airport, and
Chubu Centrair International Airport. The lessons of Kansai Airport were also applied in the construction of
Hong Kong International Airport. In 1991, the
terminal construction commenced. To compensate for the sinking of the island, adjustable columns were designed to support the terminal building. These are extended by inserting thick metal plates at their bases. Government officials proposed reducing the length of the terminal to cut costs, but architect
Renzo Piano insisted on keeping the terminal at its full planned length. The airport's opening date was decided by the
Ministry of Transportation in 1993, mainly to avoid confusion from airliners and airports who are not used to the airport and the peak July-August travel season. The construction of Kansai International Airport received much attention from local newspapers, particularly Osaka editions of major national newspapers, than those of Tokyo. Just before the airport was opened, the Ministry of Transportation approved the landing fee for its international flights at 2400 yen a tonne. The airport was opened on 4 September 1994, being the first in Japan to operate 24 hours a day. On 17 January 1995, Japan was struck by the
Great Hanshin earthquake, the
epicenter of which was about away from KIX and killed 6,434 people on Japan's main island of
Honshū. Its
earthquake engineering, particularly the use of sliding joints, allowed the airport to emerge unscathed. Even the glass in the windows remained intact. On 22 September 1998, the airport survived a typhoon with wind speeds over . On 19 April 2001, the airport was one of ten structures given the "Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium" award by the
American Society of Civil Engineers. , the total cost of Kansai Airport was $20 billion including land reclamation, two
runways, terminals, and facilities. Most additional costs were initially due to the island's sinking, caused by the soft soils of Osaka Bay, which was anticipated by designers. The sink rate fell from per year during 1994 to per year in 2008.
Operation Opened on 4 September 1994, the airport serves as a hub for several airlines such as All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, and Nippon Cargo Airlines. It is the international gateway for Japan's
Kansai region, which contains the major cities of Kyoto, Kobe, and Osaka. Other Kansai domestic flights fly from the older but more conveniently located Osaka International Airport in Itami, or from the newer Kobe Airport. Osaka business owners pressed the government to take a greater burden of the construction cost to keep the airport attractive to passengers and airlines. On 17 February 2005,
Chubu Centrair International Airport opened in
Nagoya, just east of Osaka. The opening of the airport was expected to increase competition between Japan's international airports. Despite this, passenger totals were up 11% in 2005 over 2004, and international passengers increased to 3.06 million in 2006, up 10% over 2005. Adding to the competition were the opening of Kobe Airport, less than away, in 2006 and the lengthening of the runway at
Tokushima Airport in
Shikoku in 2007. The main rationale behind the expansions was to compete with
Incheon International Airport and
Hong Kong International Airport as a gateway to Asia, as Tokyo area airports were severely congested. Kansai saw a 5% year-on-year increase in international traffic in summer 2013, largely supported by
low-cost carrier traffic to
Taiwan and Southeast Asia overcoming a decrease in traffic to China and South Korea. The airport authority was allotted four billion yen in government support for fiscal year 2013, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport and the Ministry of Finance agreed to reduce this amount in stages through fiscal year 2015, although local governments in the Kansai region have pressed for continued subsidies. Kansai has been marketed as an alternative to Narita Airport for international travelers from the
Greater Tokyo Area. By flying to Kansai from
Haneda Airport and connecting to international flights there, travelers can save the additional time required to get to Narita: up to one and a half hours for many residents of
Kanagawa Prefecture and southern Tokyo.
Expansion The airport was at its limit during peak times, owing especially to freight flights, so a portion of Phase II expansion—the second runway—was made a priority. Thus, in 2002, believing that the sinking problem was almost over, the airport operators started to construct a second runway and terminal. The second runway opened on 2 August 2007, but with the originally planned terminal portion postponed. This lowered the project cost to
JPY¥910 billion (approx. US$8 billion), saving ¥650 billion from the first estimate. The additional runway development, which was opened in time for the
IAAF World Athletics Championships in
Osaka, has expanded the airport size to . The second runway is used for landings and when there are incidents prohibiting takeoff from runway A. The new runway allowed the airport to start 24-hour operations in September 2007. A new terminal building opened in late 2012. There are additional plans for several new aprons, a third runway (06C/24C) with a length of , a new cargo terminal and expanding the airport size to . However, the Japanese government has currently postponed these plans due to funding problems.
Relationship with Itami Airport Then
Osaka Prefecture governor
Toru Hashimoto has been a vocal critic of
Itami Airport, arguing that the
Chuo Shinkansen maglev line will make much of its domestic role irrelevant, and that its domestic functions should be transferred to Kansai Airport in conjunction with upgraded high-speed access to Kansai from central Osaka. In 2009, Hashimoto also publicly proposed moving the functions of
Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Kansai Airport as a possible solution for the political crisis surrounding the base. In May 2011, the
Diet of Japan passed legislation to form a new Kansai International Airport Corporation using the state's existing equity stake in Kansai Airport and its property holdings at Itami Airport. The move was aimed at offsetting Kansai Airport's debt burden. The merger of the Itami and Kansai airport authorities was completed in July 2012. Shortly following the merger, Kansai Airport announced a 5% reduction in landing fees effective October 2012, with additional reductions during overnight hours when the airport is underutilized, and further discounts planned for the future, including subsidies for new airlines and routes. these moves were intended to bring Kansai's fees closer to the level of
Narita International Airport, where landing fees were around 20% lower than Kansai's, and to improve competitiveness with other Asian hubs such as
Incheon International Airport in South Korea. Since its formation, the new operating company has also made efforts toward international expansion, bidding for operating concessions at
Yangon International Airport and
Hanthawaddy International Airport in
Myanmar. KIAC conducted a public tender to sell the operating rights for Kansai and
Itami Airport in May 2015.
Orix and
Vinci Airports were the sole bidders for the 45-year contract, at a price of around $18 billion. The new operating company,
Kansai Airports, took over on 1 April 2016. It is 80% owned by Orix and Vinci, with the remaining 20% owned by Kansai-based enterprises such as
Hankyu Hanshin Holdings and
Panasonic.
Typhoon Jebi On 4 September 2018, the airport was hit by
Typhoon Jebi. The airport had to pause operations after seawater surges inundated the island; runways were hit, and the water reached up to the engines of some aircraft. The situation was further exacerbated when a large tanker crashed into the bridge that links the airport to the mainland, effectively stranding the people remaining at the airport. All flights at the airport were canceled until 6 September, at which date
Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announced the airport would partially resume domestic operations. Train services to the airport resumed from 18 September 2018 after repair works to the
Kansai Airport Line and
Nankai Airport Line were completed, and the airport resumed regular operations on 1 October 2018. Repairs to the damaged section of the Sky Gate Bridge R were finally completed on 8 April 2019, restoring traffic both to and from the mainland completely. ==Terminals==