jamar

I don't know. If I were to say anything further in that direction I would be talking out my rear. However, one must wonder why the other government got surrounding Asian countries and the UK+France done faster (Malaysia gets one daily flight, Korea will get 6 more flights a day, LHR and CDG are going to get flights; these are the agreements made in back in 2008; why did the US take so long?).
Though a possible sticking point is the terms of the "open skies" agreement- the US airlines get midnight slots for intercontinentals, but they're also open to operate fifth freedom flights out of Haneda under the terms of this Open Skies agreement. Certainly not something that the type of government that would randomly block inbound flights to Ibaraki to "protect" JL/NH would do (and could very well be why it took until now to get it approved).

SJUAMMF

The delay in US agreement could be due to the change in US administration in early 2009, plus lame duck period before that. Unlike Japan, US President appoints many more positions. But many are unfilled or acting at the moment.

Between learning the ropes and lame duck, effective period for a new administration is only the middle years. That is why few Japanese PM were effective. They typically were in their post too short. At least LDP held power as a party even when PMs were changed. The current administration is new to governing. It will take them a while to be effective. Then this is a nation governed mostly by career public servants, more so than the US. It was said that the brightest from the best universities frequently pick civil service instead of private sector.

JALPak

One reason is that US holds the largest share of NRT slots allocated to foreign countries. Japan wants to decrease the share and of course US wants more slots...that's why it has been taking forever

SJUAMMF

Yes, even some relatively large countries don't have direct flights to Japan. My next seat neighbor last trip was a Mexican government staffer. She had to transfer in SFO making it a three days trip.

Landing rights between nations are long term projects involving complex economic and diplomatic issues. Given current administration's direction to do more with China, landing rights would likely tilt more toward routes between Japan and China than other places.

I landed in NRT just after the Chinese New Year and immigration was full of expats returning from China and Taiwan.

jib71

I think that tells you more about the speed at which the Mexican government moves than it does about connections from Mexico.

jamar

Something's off with the first statement. AeroMexico flight numbers 57 and 58 are nonstop services from Mexico City to Narita. I also remember there being flights that stopped in Tijuana in between. Not saying that there aren't any large countries without direct service to Japan, just that Mexico isn't one of them. Granted, AM57/58 seems to be twice-weekly, but if it took 3 days to transfer at SFO maybe it would have been a brighter idea to wait for AM58 to NRT (even if not starting from MEX, surely from within Mexico connecting at MEX would take less than three days?). I'm also in agreement with jib71.

The one thing I agree with is that now the government seems to be trying to get closer to China, as evidenced by the daytime slots that SHA-HND and PEK-HND have gotten and HKG-HND will be getting as opposed to the midnight slots that the US has gotten (however, they have the fifth freedom from HND as well as NRT; Chinese carriers don't have that at all, but it's not entirely out of the question since Korea now has exchanged fifth freedoms with Japan). However, how would the current administration have the power to do this "dramatic change" and not others?

(You'd be surprised how open some other Japanese bilaterals are- Japan-Macau is Open Skies except for Tokyo, as are Japan-Thailand and Japan-Korea; depending on how Ibaraki counts Viva Macau's attempt to open flights to IBR could very well only involve Ibaraki Prefecture because of their mostly open bilateral, just like Asiana's daily to Incheon; likewise, if Thai is facing capacity issues at NRT it can open up a flight BKK-IBR just as easily)

kcvt750

Now there's a scary thought.

SJUAMMF

Not that this one haven't specified the obvious, most PM and they administrations didn't last long enough to carry out their stated objectives.

SJUAMMF

There are other extremes. Taiwan for instance, with 25M people, a new President appoints huge amount of positions. Korea PM either went to jail or killed himself.

Wing Man

Interesting blog post from the Japan Times about the tendency of these satellite airports in Japan to be located far away from convenient transportation.

Why? Because airport parking concessions are run by public corporations such as the Airport Environment Improvement Foundation, which make money when people have to drive to airports rather than taking public transportation.

http://blog.japantimes.co.jp/yen-for...araki-airport/

kcvt750

It also provides a handy excuse to spend gobs of money building a train station to the unused airport in the future.

Government/labor strategic thinking at its best.

jib71

I don't think that blog post is suggesting that Japanese airports are designed with the purpose of making people to drive to them. That would be at odds with reality.

SJUAMMF

That will be tough building a railway to the new Hiroshima Airport. It needs a cog railway may be. I landed there thinking it'll be 15 minutes to JR Hiroshima. The taxi driver asked me three times if I really wanted to go there. Then a Saijo road sign went by. I thought I was on the wrong island and the taxi was headed to a bridge. Fortunately it was another Saijo and only a 40 minutes or so taxi ride.

jamar

Rumor from 2ch: CI could be the next airline to open flights to IBR.
IBR-TPE 1/2 daily
IBR-KHH 3 weekly~daily
on a "program charter" basis. Though anything less than another scheduled flight is an issue since this airport needs more flights to get more people in, which would give it a hope of making a profit.
As it stands, estimated operating loss for this year is 20m yen (article in Japanese) and at least one person involved is now referred to as "the Kim Jong-il of Ibaraki". And the central government has stated that they're going to leave the task of actually getting flights into the airport to Ibaraki Prefecture.

Also from 2ch- this joke:
"Ibaraki is now connected to 16 Japanese cities- via Incheon"

Edited: And now for some bright-side news:
The first Asiana flight was 95% full Ibaraki-Incheon and 98% full the other way. And they're going to have a B767 (unknown type) every so often (after already switching from an A320 to an A321) due to demand. Can't say, though, how many passengers are connecting at ICN to go elsewhere. It could be that they won't be able to support that B767 they're planning to run if that charter to TPE becomes proper scheduled service, or if the other 5 airlines that are planning to move in do so. But more airlines means more aircraft landing which means more money for the airport to get it out of the red.

O Sora

Skymark is to suspend operations from Ibaraki to Kobe.

Asahi reports in Japanese.
http://www.asahi.com/national/update...006240441.html

This aiport will have no domestic flights.