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Japan finally will see the arrival of a true low-cost carrier happening. Malaysian’s budget carrier AirAsia Group has said that it plans to launch its first flights serving Japan by the end of the year. The flight will be operated by AirAsia X, the long-distance arm of AirAsia, to serve between Kuala Lumpur’s new Low-Cost Terminal in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital and Tokyo Haneda Airport, at a frequency of 3 flights weekly. It hopes to increase the frequency making it a daily service. The Japanese government has already allotted landing and takeoff slots to AirAsia X at Haneda airport, soon to open its International terminal building end of the year.

The aircraft type will be an Airbus A330 aircraft, a mid-size fleet with good fuel efficiency, and commonly used among low-cost carriers. Airfare can go as low as 14,000yen one-way with introductory airfare planning at 2500yen to catch the eyes of the discerning Japanese travellers. In addition, AirAsia will not implement the fuel surcharge to appeal to its customers. Japanese are usually weary of low priced goods and are doubtful if the service offered will be up to the basic. However, for many who has travelled with AirAsia before would know that even as an LCC it is comparable to some full-fledge carriers, and could even fair better in service standards. It has won numerous service awards and received accolades from key travel industries worldwide. AirAsia saw its passenger traffic jump year on year, even overtook asia’s powerhouse, Singapore Airlines, to become the biggest carrier in Southeast Asia.

Just like any other low-cost carriers, complimentary meal service will not be served and meals and beverages will be sold instead. Fees will be charged for bringing any extra luggage exceeding the 7kg allowance for carry-on. And stripping its costs to the bare minimum, reservations can only be made online and thus credit card is required to make a purchase. As such there won’t be phone booking available as it will inflate the running costs.

AirAsia is also planning to introduce flights to New Chitose Airport(CTS) in Sapporo, Kansai International Airport(KIX) in Osaka and Fukuoka International Airport(FUK). Unfortunately, it has left out the newly opened Ibaraki Airport, only opened last month and is trying hard to win airlines to using its airport.

Meanwhile, AirAsia X is also tipped to receive the rights to fly to Seoul and other cities soon. It will officially start flying to Mumbai in May and New Delhi in August.

Haneda Airport (Tokyo International Airport, Ota Ward, Tokyo), in anticipation of the opening of Haneda runway D, where it will allow for an increase of international flights, will switch using a new and taller air traffic tower.

The new tower will be the tallest air traffic control tower in Japan, exceeding Narita Airport’s air traffic control tower, which is 87 meters tall.
With the big expansion plan going on in Haneda airport and because the coming 4th runway is being built offshore in Tokyo Bay about four kilometers away from the old tower, making it not possible to monitor aircraft movement without a much taller tower, has called for a new air traffic tower to be build costing around 7 billion yen.

This new tower is standing 115.7 meters tall, 38 meters taller than the old tower, making it the 3rd tallest air traffic control tower in the world.

Construction work started back in late-2006 and has completed work since last year. Installations of air traffic equipments, followed by testings and traffic controllers familiarization of use have been carried out for months before its commissioning.

Because of the height, the new tower is built using the latest anti-tremor technology making it earthquake resistance as well as to peter out swaying caused by strong winds.