It is adjacent to Chitose Air Base, a Japan Air Self-Defense Force base which houses F-15 Eagle fighter jets, the Japanese Air Force One government aircraft and a number of smaller emergency response aircraft and helicopters. Chitose and New Chitose have separate runways but are interconnected by taxiways, and aircraft at either facility can enter the other by ground if permitted; the runways at Chitose are occasionally used to relieve runway closures at New Chitose due to winter weather.
New Chitose Airport is one of six 24-hour airports in Japan, but it is the only inland airport.
As of 2018, it was the fifth-busiest airport in Japan, serving 23.7 million passengers, and ranked 64th in the world in terms of passengers carried.[4] The 819 km (509 mi) Sapporo–Tokyo Haneda route is the second busiest air route in the world, with 9.7 million passengers carried in 2018.[5]
The airport continues to upgrade its facilities to accommodate the growing number of passengers, and Skytrax has it ranked 49th in the top 100 airports in the world in 2024, jump up from 102nd the previous year. As a result, the airport was awarded Skytrax's World's Most Improved Airport for 2024.
New Chitose opened in July 1988 to replace the adjacent Chitose Airport, a joint-use facility which had served passenger flights since 1963.[6] The airport's IATA airport code was originally SPK. This code was later adopted as a city code to refer to both New Chitose and the smaller Okadama Airport in central Sapporo, which handles commuter flights within Hokkaido.
New Chitose became Japan's first 24-hour airport in 1994.[citation needed] Services between 10 PM and 7 AM are currently limited to six flights per day due to noise alleviation concerns. Four of these slots are currently used by passenger flights to Tokyo while the other two are used by cargo flights.
New Chitose previously had long-haul service to Amsterdam (KLM, 1997–2002), Cairns (Qantas, 1992–1998 and 2004–2007) and Honolulu (JALWays, 1992–2003, Hawaiian Airlines since 2012). Service to Europe resumed when Finnair launched a new weekly flight to Helsinki from 15 December 2019. Finnair was the unique company to provide direct and scheduled flights between Sapporo and Europe.[7] International services are mainly for transporting tourists from the rest of Asia and for sightseeing and skiing. The area surrounding gates 0 through 2, on the north end of the main terminal, was a sterile area for international flights until the international terminal opened for service on March 26, 2010.
The airport was upgraded with additional private aircraft handling facilities for the 34th G8 summit, held in Hokkaido in 2008.
Due to the airport's sharing of air traffic control with Chitose Air Base, daytime civil operations are limited to 32 takeoffs and landings per hour, and operations by certain foreign aircraft (including Chinese and Russian aircraft) are prohibited on Mondays and Thursdays. These restrictions were scheduled to be eased in March 2017.[8] A second terminal is being built roughly doubling the existing terminal and capacity, scheduled to be complete by August 2019.[9]
Airport diagram before the opening of the International Terminal. Civil flights use the parallel runways to the southeast; JASDF flights use the parallel runways to the northwest.
Terminal building
Domestic terminal atrium
International terminal
International departures area
A map of Hokkaido consisting of Sapporo ramen bowls inside of the terminal.
The airport has a semicircular domestic terminal (reminiscent of the semicircular terminals at DFW Airport) with eighteen gates, and a smaller international terminal with six gates.
Operating hours for international flights at CTS are restricted by the Japanese government in order to avoid interference with JASDF operations at the adjacent air base. As of April 2012, international flights are permitted on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from noon to 4 pm, and from 5 pm on Friday through 11:59 pm on Sunday.[10]
Media related to New Chitose Airport at Wikimedia Commons
Transport
Aviation
JR Hokkaido lines
Sapporo Municipal Subway
