On April 18, the long awaited second runway opened at NRT. Albet its short runway of less than 2,200 meters, it does allow for many short to medium haul flight activities to Asian destinations, and many flights have been accordingly increased. However, I have noticed that in the past two landings that I made at NRT since the opening of the second runway, on both occassions, my planes circled around the Pacific ocean before allowed entry to NRT. As the pilots of both flights initially expected us to be landing way ahead of the schedule, this sudden circling around over the ocean was a sheer surprise. After all, there is an extra runway now!

Well, according the Asahi Newspaper yesterday, the opening of the second runway
did not mean the opening of the increased approach ways to NRT....due to the limited air traffic routes/control area given the proximity to the nearby defense base.

Oh give me a break! How can they celebrate the opening of the second runway without the corresponding increase in the airtraffic approach paths in the air??? Once again, I am saddened by the bureaucratic stupidity of our government.

so next time you fly into NRT, don't be surprised if your plane keep circling over the Pacific just outside of the peninsula. you can see the cicles on your airshow!!

In fact, before the opening of the second runway that increased the flight activity substantially, I think the landing path into
NRT was far more straight forward and faster.

for some reason, EVERY time i fly through NRT between N America and SIN (usually on JL), we end up circling just off the coast, which is frustrating since it always tacks on another 10 minutes to the ETA.