Asahikawa Airport

, is a single-runway regional airport in Hokkaidō, Japan, straddling the cities of Asahikawa and Higashikagura.

History

Planning of the airport began in the late 1950s. The site was chosen in November 1960 and received government approval in 1963. Japan Domestic Airlines began the first scheduled flight to Asahikawa on July 1, 1966, a NAMC YS-11 service to Haneda Airport via Okadama Airport. Scheduled service was seasonal (May through October) until 1970, when year-round flights to Tokyo began.

The airport was closed for expansion work from May 1981 until February 1982, during which time the main runway was extended and widened, from 1,200 x 30 m to 1,640 m x 45 m. A further extension to 2,000 m was completed in November 1982. Following these expansions, jet service began at the airport, beginning with DC-9 and the MD-80 narrow-body aircraft followed by wide-body Airbus A300s beginning in December 1983.

ANA operated the first international charter flight from Asahikawa in 1987. Another runway extension, to 2,500 m, was completed in 1997, and the parallel taxiway opened in 1998. China Eastern Airlines began service to Beijing and Shanghai in 2014, but ended the Beijing route in 2016 and the Shanghai route in 2017. The new terminal opened in November 2018. An international lounge opened in January 2019.

The operating rights to Asahikawa Airport, along with six other airports in Hokkaido, were acquired by Hokkaido Airports Co., Ltd. in January 2020. Later that year, the COVID-19 pandemic ended all international service at the airport and cut domestic traffic by 82%. Japan removed cross-boarder travel restrictions in April 2023, with international destinations resuming shortly after.

Airlines and destinations