Ibaraki Airport

Hyakuri Airfield · Ibaraki Airport Hyakuri Air Base 百里飛行場/百里基地 Hyakuri Hikōjō · Hyakuri kichi
IATA: IBR – ICAO: RJAH
Summary
Airport type		Military/Public
Operator		JASDF
Location		Omitama, Ibaraki, Japan
Elevation AMSL		107 ft / 33 m
Coordinates		36°10′54″N 140°24′53″E
Website		IBARAKI AIRPORT
Map
RJAH Location in Japan
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	m	ft
03L/21R	2,700	8,858	Concrete
03R/21L	2,700	8,858	Concrete
Source: Source: Japanese AIP at AIS Japan

Location of Ibaraki Airport

Ibaraki Airport is an airport in the city of Omitama, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. It also serves as air base for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force under the name Hyakuri Air Base. The airport was known as Hyakuri Airfield (百里飛行場, Hyakuri Hikōjō) prior to March 2010, when civil aviation operations began. The airport is located about 53 mi (85 km) north of Tokyo, and is intended to serve as a low-cost alternative to Tokyo's larger Narita and Haneda airports. The result of large public investment, the airport has been criticized as being a symbol of wasteful government spending and as being unnecessary, opening with only one flight per day.

History

The airfield was first developed by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1937, with much of the land claimed from local farmers under the orders of Emperor Hirohito. After the end of World War II, the locals reclaimed the land and resumed farming. The base was reopened in 1956 by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, which took control of the land once again. Many farmers who live around the base have refused to sell their lands to the government to enable expansion of the airfield.

In March 2010, after a 22 billion yen ($243 million) local and national government investment, the airfield was renamed to Ibaraki Airport, and civil aviation operations began. At the time of opening, Ibaraki offered two flights, an Asiana service to Seoul, South Korea, and to Kobe in western Japan, by Skymark Airlines. The original plans for a three-story terminal with separate arrivals, departures, and sightseeing levels was scrapped by the governor of Ibaraki Prefecture, Masaru Hashimoto, who ordered the building to be reduced to one story in height, to reduce costs. The airport will eschew jetways, with passengers boarding planes from the tarmac. Additional cost-cutting measures, intended to allow the airport to charge lower landing fees than those at Narita and Haneda, include the use of aircraft parking procedures that reduce or eliminate the need for pushback tractors, and the possibility of having the passengers carry their own luggage to the aircraft, a practice used at some regional airports in the United States.

Interest in the airport has been expressed by the Malaysian carrier Air Asia X as well as Korean airline Asiana, but only the latter has committed to flying out of the airport on a fixed basis. TransAsia Airways has committed to flights to and from Taipei's Taoyuan Airport on a semi-regular basis from March to May. During the May holiday, charters to Guam, Cebu, Bali, and Hainan will operate out of the airport. Also, China-based low-cost carrier Spring Airlines has chosen this airport as its Tokyo-area destination with its recent approval for international flying. It will run three flights a week from Shanghai-Pudong starting from the end of July at the earliest for two months as a charter, switching to scheduled flights at the end of the two-month period (estimated to be around the end of the World Expo). However, it has started selling seats on the charters in the same manner as a normal flight since September, much like the early Hongqiao-Haneda "scheduled charters".

As of March 2011, flights to Shanghai were operating at 80% capacity and the flights to Kobe at 50% capacity. On March 11, 2011, the roof of one of the terminals came down in an earthquake but has since been repaired.

A total of 860,000 people visited the airport terminal in its first year with 203,070 of those being traveling passengers.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Asiana Airlines	Seoul-Incheon (to resume after October 2011)
Skymark Airlines	Kobe, Sapporo-New Chitose
Spring Airlines	Shanghai-Pudong

Ground transportation

Buses

Buses connect Ibaraki Airport with various train stations in Ibaraki prefecture to Tokyo station:

• Ishioka Station on the JR Joban Line is the closest serviced station by bus.[2], from there, journey time to Tokyo station is one hour 40 minutes to two and half hours by railway, depending on exact route.
• One can also go points northward by bus from the airport bus connection to Mito Station (Ibaraki).[3] or to Narita Airport via Kashima Rinkai Railway from Mito.

• Additionally, there is a shuttle bus which serves as a direct connection between Tokyo Station and the airport. The journey time is approximately 2.5 hours and reservations are required, and the fee for airline passengers is 500 yen.

Japan Air Self-Defense Force

F-15J Eagle of the JASDF 7th Air Wing at Hyakuri Airshow.

Central Air Defense Force

• 7th Air Wing
  • 302nd Tactical Fighter Squadron (F-4EJ Kai Phantom II,T-4)
  • 305th Tactical Fighter Squadron (F-15 Eagle,T-4)

Air Defense Command

• Tactical Reconnaissance Group
  • 501st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (RF-4E,RF-4EJ,T-4)

Air Support Command

• Hyakuri Air Rescue Wing (UH-60J, U-125A)

External links

• Official site (English)
• 百里飛行場民間共用化 (Omitama City) (Japanese)
• いばらきの空港・百里飛行場／茨城県企画部空港対策室 (Ibaraki Prefecture) (Japanese)
• 関東地方整備局予算の概要 (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) (Japanese)
• 国土交通省関東地方整備局港湾空港部 (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) (Japanese)
• Current weather for RJAH at NOAA/NWS
• JASDF Official site(English)航空自衛隊