Kokura Airport

, previously called until 2005, was a small airport in Kokura Minami-ku, Kitakyūshū, Japan. There used to be four flights to and from Tokyo Haneda every day. The runway was long, so although large-sized jets (namely the

Boeing 767 The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body aircraft developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified on ...

and

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) could not use the airfield, mid-sized aircraft such as the

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...

and

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

could, albeit with a reduced payload. It is now commonly referred to as

Kokura is an ancient castle town and the center of Kitakyushu, Japan, guarding the Straits of Shimonoseki between Honshu and Kyushu with its suburb Moji. Kokura is also the name of the penultimate station on the southbound San'yō Shinkansen li ...

, its location, to distinguish it from the

New Kitakyushu Airport , sometimes called Kokuraminami Airport, is an airport in Kokuraminami-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan. It is built on an artificial island in the western Seto Inland Sea, away from the main body of the city. It opened on 16 March 2006, as but ...

(renamed Kitakyushu Airport in 2008), an offshore airport built on a man-made island in Suo nada, the most westerly part of the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka ...

. The new airport opened in March 2006, taking over the old airport codes . The final scheduled flight from the airport was an MD-87 to

Haneda Airport , officially , and sometimes called as Tokyo Haneda Airport or Haneda International Airport , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary ...

with the final flight was the CRJ-200 to

Komaki Airport , also known as Komaki Airport or Nagoya Airport, is an airport which lies within the local government areas of Toyoyama, Komaki, Kasugai and Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It was once an international airport, but is now a domestic sec ...

left before midnight of 16 March 2006. As of 2013, the former airport is one of the potential sites for new

JASDF The , , also informally referred to as the Japanese Air Force, is the air and space branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, responsible for the defense of Japanese airspace, other air and space operations, cyberwarfare and electronic warfare. ...

facilities as part of an ongoing defense buildup. Airports in Japan Transport in Fukuoka Prefecture Defunct airports in Japan Buildings and structures in Fukuoka Prefecture Airports established in 1944 Airports disestablished in 2006 1944 establishments in Japan 2006 disestablishments in Japan {{Japan-airport-stub