is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

located in Okadama-chō, Higashi-ku,

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

Hokkaido is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...

, northAIS Japan
/ref> of the city center of Sapporo. Its scheduled airline service is limited to

turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. ...

flights to other cities in

Hokkaidō is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...

; larger aircraft use

New Chitose Airport is an international airport located south-southeast of Chitose and Tomakomai, Hokkaidō, Japan, serving the Sapporo metropolitan area. By both traffic and land area, it is the largest airport in Hokkaidō. It is adjacent to Chitose Air Ba ...

, south of the city. The airport is also used by the

Japan Self-Defense Forces The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of armed forces, th ...

and by corporate and

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

operators: an adjacent facility houses the

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...

center for Hokkaido and the Tohoku region. The airport houses the headquarters of Hokkaido Air System.

History

Okadama was constructed between 1942 and 1944 as an airfield for the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...

. Following Japan's surrender to the United States in 1945, ending

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

took over the airfield, using it as a training base until the end of the US occupation in 1952. Following the occupation, the field reverted to the

. Scheduled civilian passenger operations began in June 1956 when North Japan Airlines (later Japan Domestic Airlines, Toa Domestic Airlines and

Japan Air System was the smallest of the big three Japanese airlines. In contrast to the other two, JAL and ANA, JAS' international route network was very small, but its domestic network incorporated many smaller airports that were not served by the two large ...

) began service to Memanbetsu.

All Nippon Airways , also known as ANA (''Ē-enu-ē'') or is an airline in Japan. Its headquarters are located in Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area of Minato ward of Tokyo. It operates services to both domestic and international destinations and had m ...

began service to Okadama in 1966. These airlines operated propeller service at the airport through the mid-1970s, chiefly using

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 ...

turboprops. Although the airport's main runway was extended from 1,000 to 1,500 m in 1967, most scheduled traffic migrated to

which was better equipped to handle larger jet aircraft. In 1974, Toa ceased operations at Okadama and ANA established a new subsidiary,

Air Nippon was a regional airline based in the Shiodome City Center complex in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of All Nippon Airways (ANA). Its main base was Tokyo International Airport. Code data In April 2004, Air Nippon ...

, to handle YS-11 flights at the airport. ANA later replaced its YS-11s with quieter

Bombardier Dash 8 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was later bought by Boeing in 1988, then by Bombardier in 1992; then by ...

turboprops. In 1995, the city of Sapporo proposed extending the runway to 2,000 m in order to allow jet service at Okadama. This plan met protests from neighboring residents, and was abandoned in 1996. In 1998, local residents agreed to an extension of the runway to 1,500 m in exchange for a cap of 44 daily takeoffs and landings. ANA, which accounted for 80% of passenger traffic at Okadama, ceased Okadama operations in 2010, leaving JAL affiliate Hokkaido Air System as the airport's only scheduled carrier. The airport terminal (operated by a company 26% owned by the Sapporo government) operated at a slight profit until fiscal year 2009, but the departure of ANA group traffic drove its finances into a net loss. HAC continues to serve the airport using

Saab 340 The Saab 340 is a Swedish twin-engine turboprop aircraft designed and initially produced by Saab AB and Fairchild Aircraft. It is designed to seat 30-36 passengers and, as of July 2018, there were 240 operational aircraft used by 34 different o ...

turboprops which it has since been replaced by the

ATR 42 The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France. On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aérospatiale (now Airbus) and ...

. In November 2013,

Fuji Dream Airlines is a Japanese regional airline headquartered in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture. It operates a fleet of Embraer E-Jets with three main hubs at Shizuoka Airport, Nagoya Airfield and Kobe Airport. The airline commenced operations on J ...

operated a regional jet charter to Okadama from Komaki Airport in Nagoya, the first passenger jet service in the airport's history.

Airlines and destinations

JGSDF units

*Northern Air Corps Headquarters ( Beechcraft King Air 350) *Northern Helicopter Corps ( H-6,

UH-1 The Bell UH-1 Iroquois (nicknamed "Huey") is a utility military helicopter designed and produced by the American aerospace company Bell Helicopter. It is the first member of the prolific Huey family, as well as the first turbine-powered helico ...

) *No. 7 Division Airborne *No. 11 Division Airborne

Ground transportation

Buses

北37条東21丁目（旧・丘珠空港入口）- Kita 37-Jō Higashi 21-chome bus stop It takes about 5 minutes on foot from Airport Terminal to this bus stop and the distance is about 200m. 北36条東27丁目 – Kita 36-Jō Higashi 27-chome bus stop It takes about 10 minutes on foot from Airport Terminal to this bus stop and distance is about 700m.

Trains

It takes 15 minutes on foot from the Airport Terminal to

Subway Subway, Subways, The Subway, or The Subways may refer to: Transportation * Subway, a term for underground rapid transit rail systems * Subway (underpass), a type of walkway that passes underneath an obstacle * Subway (George Bush Intercontin ...

Sakaemachi Station.

References

External links

Okadama Airport, official homepage
{{Authority control Higashi-ku, Sapporo Airports in Hokkaido Japan Ground Self-Defense Force bases Military airbases established in 1944 1944 establishments in Japan Buildings and structures in Sapporo