Reclamation at Centrair starts for around-the-clock flights

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Land reclamation work is conducted next to Chubu Centrair International Airport in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, on Thursday.

NAGOYA — Land reclamation work in the waters west of Chubu Airport in Aichi Prefecture has begun for the construction of new runways that will enable around-the-clock flights.

The construction being carried out by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry is scheduled to be completed around 2037.

A new runway, which will be the same length as the existing 3,500-meter runway, will be constructed.

A second, shorter runway 3,290 meters long will be built on the east side of the existing runway by fiscal 2027, before the land reclamation work is completed.

The current runway will eventually be decommissioned once the new runway on the reclaimed land is operational.

The seawall work for the landfill that began Thursday starts a big transformative move for the airport, which has been aiming for around-the-clock flights since it opened in 2005.

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Land reclamation work is conducted next to Chubu Centrair International Airport in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, on Thursday.

The new runways will allow the airport to increase its annual arrival and departure capacity to 195,000, a 50% increase from the current 130,000, in preparation for the recovery of air travel demand after the coronavirus crisis.