Kōchi Airport (, '')'' , also known as Kōchi Ryōma Airport (, '), is a regional airport in Nankoku, a city in

Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 669,516 (1 April 2023) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and Tok ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is located on the southeastern coast, eastAIS Japan
of the city of Kōchi. The airport has a single runway handling small to medium size aircraft. The two storey terminal building is located to the north side of the runway. The arrivals level is on the first floor and departures on the second. There are 14 retail stores in the small terminal building. There is an observation deck on the third floor of the building. Transportation from the airport is by car, taxi or bus.

History

Kōchi Airport was originally built in 1944 as Kōchi Airfield for the

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, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

and from 1945 to 1952 the airport was under command of US forces. The airfield became a civilian airport in 1952 and first flights started operating in 1954. The runway was expanded in 1960 and 1980 and later to to handle larger aircraft. In November 2003 it became the first airport in Japan to be nicknamed after a person: Bakumatsu period leader Sakamoto Ryōma."Japan's Kochi airport named after samurai with six-shooter"
''ThingsAsian.com'', 2003-11-16.

Facts

* of cargo annually (2000) * 13,500 landings annually (2000) * 3 gates handling 37 aircraft

Statistics

* 2,400,000 passengers annually (1,932,000 in 2000)

Airlines and destinations

Incidents and accidents

On 13 March 2007, All Nippon Airways Flight 1603, a

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 bought by Boeing in 1986, then by Bombardier in 1992, then by Lon ...

, on a flight from

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

to Kōchi, landed safely at the Kōchi Airport after the front wheel of the plane failed to deploy. As a result, ANA's fleet of thirteen Bombardier DHC-8 aircraft were grounded for emergency inspections.Japanese airline grounds Bombardier fleet after plane makes emergency landing
- All News Radio online - Obtained March 14, 2007.

References

External links

Kōchi Airport

from

Japan Airlines Japan Airlines (JAL) is the flag carrier airline of Japan. JAL is headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport, Narita and Haneda Airport, Haneda airports, as well as secondary hubs in Osaka's Kansai ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kochi Airport Airports in Shikoku region Transport buildings and structures in Kōchi Prefecture Airports established in 1944 1944 establishments in Japan Nankoku, Kōchi