Saga Prefecture started gathering public feedback about its plan to extend Saga Airport’s sole runway (runway 11/29) from its current 2,000 meters to 2,5000 meters in November 2023.
The prefecture has now revealed that since then, it received approximately 1,300 responses of which over 90% said the respondents “understood” or “to an extent understood” the plan. It is expected to release a report summarizing the public feedback later this month. Of the different options originally considered, the prefecture chose one which would extend the east end of the runway by 500 meters.
With the public understanding gained, the project will proceed to its next stages. Those will include environmental assessment among other things. The prefecture aims to have the extended runway operational by 2033.
Once the runway is extended, Saga Prefecture hopes to attract more foreign airlines to serve the airport, which currently has flights to Tokyo, as well as Seoul, Shanghai, and Taipei. The airport is located about halfway between Fukuoka and Nagasaki airports, with each being about a 90-minute drive away.
