is an airport located in

Kirishima, Kagoshima Prefecture is a Cities of Japan, city located in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Kirishima has the second largest population of the cities in Kagoshima Prefecture. It is a crossroads for commerce between Kagoshima and Miyazaki Prefecture, Miyazaki Prefecture ...

, Japan, northeast of

Kagoshima-Chūō Station is a major railway station in Kagoshima, Japan, operated by Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu). It is the main railway terminal serving Kagoshima, the southern terminus of the Kyushu Shinkansen and is located on the Kagoshima Main Line and Ibusuk ...

AIS Japan
in

Kagoshima City , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wo ...

. It is the second-busiest airport in

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

after

Fukuoka Airport , formerly known as Itazuke Air Base, is an international and domestic airport located east of Hakata Station in Hakata-ku, Fukuoka, Japan. Fukuoka Airport is the principal airport on the island of Kyushu and is the fourth busiest passenger ...

Japan Air Commuter is a Japanese airline based in Kirishima, Kagoshima Prefecture. It operates feeder services in support of Japan Airlines. Its main base is Kagoshima Airport, with hubs at Osaka International Airport, Amami Airport and Fukuoka Airport. His ...

, a regional affiliate of

Japan Airlines , also known as JAL (''Jaru'') or , is an international airline and Japan's flag carrier and largest airline as of 2021 and 2022, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport, as w ...

, and New Japan Aviation have their headquarters at the airport.

Overview

The airport is located 30km northeast of

. Although access by train is poor, access via expressway is good because it is close to the E3

Kyushu Expressway ( Asian Highway Network ) is one of the Expressways of Japan from Kitakyūshū (and the bridge to Honshū) to west of Kagoshima linking with the Higashikyushu Expressway and the Ibusuki Skyline. It runs through the prefectures of Fukuoka Pref ...

Mizobe Kagoshima Airport Interchange.

History

The airport opened in 1972, replacing a former

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

airfield in the Kamoike area near the city center, which had served as the city's main airport since 1957. The site of the former airport was re-developed as a "

new town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

" with office buildings and high-density housing projects, and is now the site of the

Kagoshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,599,779 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 9,187 km2 (3,547 sq mi). Kagoshima Prefecture borders Kumamoto P ...

government office, among other buildings. The airport's runway had an initial length of 2,500 m, which was extended to 3,000 m in 1980. An international terminal opened in 1982 and a cargo terminal opened in 1987.

Air Niugini Air Niugini Limited is the national airline of Papua New Guinea, based in Air Niugini House on the property of Jacksons International Airport, Port Moresby. It operates a domestic network from Port Moresby to 12 major airports while its subsidia ...

Cathay Pacific Airways Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (CPA), more widely known as Cathay Pacific (), is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and subsidiaries have s ...

China Airlines China Airlines (CAL; ) is the state-owned flag carrier of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and one of its two major airlines along with EVA Air. It is headquartered in Taoyuan International Airport and operates over 1,400 flights weekly (inclu ...

and

Nauru Airlines Nauru Air Corporation, trading as Nauru Airlines (formerly trading as Our Airline and Air Nauru), is the flag carrier airline of the Republic of Nauru. It operates scheduled international services to other Pacific islands and Australia. Its main ...

provided international service to Kagoshima from the 1970s to the 1980s, and JAL operated a route to Singapore via Hong Kong and Bangkok during the 1980s. Kagoshima served as the destination of the final scheduled

NAMC YS-11 The NAMC YS-11 is a turboprop airliner designed and built by the Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (NAMC), a Japanese consortium. It was the only post-war airliner to be wholly designed and manufactured in Japan until the development of t ...

flight in 2006.

Facilities

Kagoshima's domestic terminal has nine gates. ANA and JAL both operate lounges in the terminal. The international terminal has a single gate.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Statistics

References

External links

Airport website
* * {{Japanese airports Airports in Kyushu Airports in Kagoshima Prefecture Airports established in 1972 1972 establishments in Japan Kirishima, Kagoshima