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a i r p o r t scosts.In general, Japanese airports only handled26 aircraft movements an hour. In contrast,several single runway airports in the worldhandle over 40 movements per hour withoutcompromising safety. “This suggests Japaneseairports have considerable under-utilisedcapacity ... there is surely an obligation to usethe facilities as efficiently as possible allowingunit costs to be reduced,” said the paper.It also raises questionmarks over:• Allowing Itami Airport to continue operationsafter the opening of New KansaiAirport.• Approving development of a third airportin the region at Kobe.• Allowing construction of a second runwayat Kansai “without consensus on the needfor this huge new expenditure”.• The building of a new international terminalat Nagoya Airport when a new airport isscheduled to replace it in 2005. It was notjustified, claimed the report.• Given the cost escalation that has accompaniedeach new airport facility in Japan, thepaper said it viewed the prospect of a newCentral Japan International Airport “withmisgivings”.A source told Orient Aviation the Kobeproject, for example, had been on the stocksfor 20 years, but there was “no justificationfor the airport”. He said there were a numberof “white elephant” airports in Japan. “They(the development) are part of governmentmeasures to boost the economy,” said thesource.A 3.8% reduction in Japan’s Air NavigationFacility Charge in January was a step inthe right direction, but did not significantlyalter the comparative picture, said the FAAJpaper. “To be consistent with ICAO principles,air navigation charges should be justifiedby the level of service provided,” it added.“According to aviation experts in this field,the amount of information provided by theJCAB was not sufficient to determine if Japan’scharging level for air navigation services wasappropriate.“If Japan could fund navigation servicesdirectly from landing fees or other sources, aspractised in several other jurisdictions, thatwould be ideal.”Office rents and common user chargesat airport terminals in Japan also rank as thehighest in the world. “The airport buildingcompanies are monopoly franchises ... theairlines wish to see evidence they are beingefficiently run with no unnecessary waste,”said the paper.“According to the ICAO Council on AirportCharges ‘airports should maintain accountsthat provide a satisfactory basis for determiningand allocating costs to be recovered’.”At present, the Nagoya Airport BuildingCompany did not do this, said the paper.There also was strong evidence the Fukuokaand Nagoya building companies had madegood profits for many years and both haveproposed to heavily increase their charges.“The foreign airlines wish to ensure their pastreserves have been fully utilised to pay for thenew terminal facilities.”The FAAJ is also unhappy that the NaritaAirport Authority is charging airlines the samerent for Narita Terminals 1 and 2. “Terminal 1 isfar from complete. It will be at least six yearsbefore Terminal 1 will reach the same standardsas Terminal 2, which opened eight yearsago.” The FAAJ said it was premature to imposehigh rent increases at Narita Terminal 1.It urged the Japanese Government to“incentivise” airport building companies toreduce costs. “For example, airports in otherLanding Charges in Year 2000 (in US$)10,0009,0008,0007,0006,0005,0004,0003,0002,0001,0000NRTHND(Intl)KIX NGO/FUKNGO/FUK*Pre *Postfee reductionCumulative Port Charges in Year 2000 (in US$)16,00014,00012,00010,0008,0006,0004,0002,0000NRTHND(Intl)countries raise a higher share of revenue fromnon-aeronautical concession fees like dutyfree goods, compared to airports in Japan,”said the paper.On January 1 Japan introduced overflightcharges for aircraft crossing its airspace. “TheFAAJ maintains the capital and operating costof the air navigation infrastructure in the NahaFlight Information Region (FIR) does not justifythe same level of charges as the Tokyo FIR,” itsaid. The FAAJ wants them reduced.“The world trend in air navigation chargesis moving away from the systemwidecharging approach, with its inherent crosssubsidisationbetween different users, tofocus on route and location specific charging,thereby aligning costs to the services beingprovided. The FAAJ urges the MoT to followthis trend in Japan.”The first vice-chairman of the FAAJ andCathay Pacific Airways regional manager forJapan and Korea, Michael Whitehead, said theFAAJ and the IATA Joint User Charges BoardRelated ChargeLanding ChargeSEL TPE HKG BKK SIN SYD FRA LHR PAR NYC LAXCommon User ChargeImport Cargo Handling ChargeOffice Rent and AdminNavigation ChargeLanding Charge, etcKIX NGO FUK SEL TPE HKG BKK SIN SYD FRA LHR PAR NYC LAX48 | Orient Aviation | February 2000