Originally Posted by
hayashir
I didn't want to open a new thread for this, but this year is the 30 year anniversary of KIX.
Here is an interesting page of KIX's history:
https://www.kansai-airport.or.jp/30th/en/history/
Some things I found interesting:
- 1994: "Japan’s First 24-hour Operational Airport Opens." Unfortunately it's not operated as 24-hour airport at all. Currently the last departing flight is at 0:55 (12:55am) JL727 to Bangkok and the next one is at 7:40am Peach MM701 to Seoul.
- Also from this page (1997): The first overnight passenger flight commenced in 1997. Flight 774 from Bangkok to Los Angeles arrived at Kansai International Airport at 12:40 AM and departed for Los Angeles at 1:50 AM.
- The opening of the airport was celebrated by the arrival of Air France’s Concorde supersonic aircraft, which was praised as a dream airliner.
- Additionally, within 100 days of its opening, the number of international passengers departing from the airport reached 1 million, marking a turning point in its history.
- 2000: Just over five years and four months after its opening on September 4, 1994, the airport reached a cumulative passenger count of 100 million, setting a national record for the fastest airport to achieve this.
- 2007: A second runway opens. (I didn't know it operated only with one runway for so long.)
- 2017: In January 2017, the international area of Terminal 2 was opened. (Currently used by Peach, Jeju Air and Spring Japan) This made the airport the first of its kind in Japan to introduce a walkthrough duty-free shop.
I hope next year for Osaka Expo there will be a lot more connections.
There are no passengers flights departing between 00:55 and 07:40, but there are plenty of cargo flights arriving and departing during the night hours. And the first passenger services comes in between 5am and 6am.
While the airport is open 24 hours, public transport never was. Which is a very limiting factor for when airlines want to have passenger flights.