The Three Kansai Airports Forum consisting of local governments and businesses including Kansai Airports, the operator of the three Kansai area airports, agreed on introducing new arrival and departure routes at and increasing capacity of Osaka Kansai Airport and Kobe Airport.
While the plan is yet to obtain the necessary authorizations from Japan’s transport ministry, the forum aims for the new arrival and departure routes to come into effect with the start of the 2025 summer schedule at the end of March 2025. Implementing the new routes with that schedule would allow the capacity at the two airports to be increased in time for EXPO 2025, which will be held in Osaka from mid-April to mid-October 2025.
By the time EXPO 2025 starts, the forum’s plan sees capacity at Kobe Airport increasing from the current 80 to 120 movements per day and becoming able to accept international passenger charter flights. The plan also calls for allowing scheduled international flights at Kobe Airport from around 2030.
At Kansai Airport, capacity is expected to initially increase to approximately 300,000 movements per year (in 2019, the airport recorded just over 100,000 movements). The forum also recommitted to its 2022 target of increasing the airport’s capacity to 500,000 movements per year by 2030.
