Govt. Approves New Runway At Narita Airport
The Japanese government has given the operator of Tokyo's Narita airport approval to build a third runway and extend one of the two existing ones.
The president of Narita International Airport Corporation, Akihiko Tamura, received the license for the project at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on Friday.
Under the plan, the company will spend about 500 billion yen, or about 4.6 billion dollars, to build a new 3.5 kilometer-long runway and extend one of the two current runways by one kilometer to 3.5 kilometers.
When the project is completed, expected in 2029, Narita's annual capacity for takeoffs and landings will be raised by 70 percent to 500,000.
The operator applied for the license last year, saying that the airport needs to be expanded to cope with the increasing number of foreign visitors to Japan.
