A new, centralized security check area for passengers departing on international flights out of Osaka Kansai Airport is currently under construction. The facility, scheduled to fully open in spring 2025, is set for partial opening on September 3, 2024, ahead of the airport’s 30th anniversary celebrations, the airport’s operator Kansai Airports announced on August 26, 2024.
Currently, the airport has two separate international security check areas with combined 16 lanes, each 15 meters long. Once fully operational, the new, centralized security check area is expected to have 18 lanes including 10 20-meter smart lanes and eight 15 meter lanes with the possibility of expanding the total to 22 lanes in the future.
With that, the processing capacity of the new 6,300-square meter, 18-lane facility is expected to be approximately 6,000 passengers per hour compared to the existing two facilities’ 4,500 passengers per hour.
Sixteen lanes including all of the longer smart lanes are expected to be operational when the new facility pre-opens this September.
The security check area renovation is part of wider series of renovations, aimed primarily at increasing international capacity, Kansai Airport has been going through since 2021.
Reassigning of gate usage between international and domestic flights and the opening of a fully refurbished domestic airside area in October 2022 and international airside area in December 2023.
A pair of new international lounges is expected to open at the airport in the spring of 2025 alongside the security check area’s full opening.
