In Japan, a Basic Airport Betting on Bargain Airlines

Amenities would be pared to a minimum. Jetways for boarding would be eliminated; passengers would board planes from the tarmac and perhaps even handle their own check-in luggage. All the ideas were so blasphemous in service-conscious Japan that one local official said his “mind went blank” when he heard of the plan.

Ibaraki Airport, about 53 miles north of Tokyo, opens on Thursday and is intended to be a completely new type of Japanese airport: a no-frills facility that could finally open up Japan’s expensive capital city to low-budget airlines.

Ignored by Japan’s big-league carriers, the little airport is going against all odds. It is the 98th airport in a country with a landmass smaller than California’s. Ibaraki Prefecture is devoid of tourist attractions, except for an ancient garden, known for its plum blossoms, and famous purveyors of natto, or pungent, fermented soy beans.

For now, Ibaraki will offer just two flights a day: one to Seoul by the South Korean carrier Asiana Airlines, and another to Kobe, a medium-size port city in western Japan, by the Japanese budget carrier SkyMark Airlines.

Even Japan’s transportation minister, Seiji Maehara, has been hard-pressed to muster much enthusiasm for the airport’s opening, despite its roughly 22 billion yen ($243 million) from local and national coffers. The news media have painted Ibaraki as just another money-losing airport, an example of the useless public works projects that dot Japan’s countryside.

“I’m not about to beg airlines from Japan and elsewhere to fly to Ibaraki,” Mr. Maehara said last week. “The prefecture needs to do what it can to make use of the airport.”

A closer look at Ibaraki, however, reveals a strategy that could jolt Japan’s long-stagnant aviation sector.

Travel experts say low-cost air services have the potential for growth, especially as incomes rise in big countries like China and India, bringing air travel to more people. Budget carriers have sprung up across the Asia-Pacific region. But Japan’s airline industry has been dominated by Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airlines and plagued by expensive and inefficient airports.

The greater Tokyo area in particular could use another airport to handle flights by low-cost carriers, much like the Stansted or Luton airports outside of London. The city and its surroundings represent the largest metropolitan sprawl in the world with a population of 40 million. It is currently served by two airports, Narita — which handles most of the international traffic — and Haneda, which primarily serves domestic flights. Haneda, however, is gaining interest from international carriers because of bilateral agreements that are opening up more slots for overseas flights.

“Ibaraki is definitely on the right track,” said Ushio Chujo, a professor of transportation economics at Keio University in Tokyo.

In 2007, long after blueprints for an impressive terminal building at Ibaraki Airport were drawn up, and contractors hired, Ibaraki Prefecture’s governor, Masaru Hashimoto, called for building “an airport Japan had never seen before.”

Mr. Hashimoto ordered a redesign of the terminal from scratch. He scrapped a plan to place arrivals, departures and a viewing deck on separate floors, instead putting everything on one level.

Mr. Hashimoto eliminated boarding bridges, which are expensive for carriers to use and for airports to maintain. Passengers instead will board from the tarmac. (“People will love it — they can pose for photos in front of the plane,” he said.)

He also wants passengers to carry their own check-in luggage to the plane, in a setup similar to some regional American airports — though he is still negotiating with officials on the point.

Planes landing at Ibaraki will taxi and park in a way that does not require the help of a tractor to push them back onto the runway before taking off — another reason passengers will board from the tarmac. That move, the first for an international airport in Japan, saves tractor use fees for airlines and slashes maintenance costs for Ibaraki.

When officials protested that Japan’s finicky passengers would complain about the rain, Mr. Hashimoto and his aides offered this plan: give out free umbrellas on rainy days. (The Japanese love freebies, he said.)

Those efforts have paid off: Landing fees for a Boeing 737 on a scheduled flight at Ibaraki are about 89,000 yen ($982), two-thirds of Narita’s 139,600 yen fee ($1,540) and less than half of the 189,600 yen ($2,092) at Haneda, according to the industry publication Orient Aviation.

The airport is expected to lose 20 million yen ($221,000) in its first year of operation.

Still, Ibaraki is going on a sales offensive. The airport is in discussions with low-cost carriers in China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Macao. Asiana, meanwhile, is studying an additional route to the South Korean port city of Busan.

“Ibaraki is the first airport in Japan to break the mold by really focusing on cost and efficiency,” said Dongshil Hyun, executive vice president at Asiana and head of the airline’s Japan operations.

“We finally have a much-needed new route to Tokyo,” he said. “How could we not be excited?”

Write a one or two sentence summary.
Passengers will board from the tarmac at a new no-frills airport north of Tokyo that intends to attract more low-cost airlines to Japan.