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No use crying over spilled milk now, I must say. “You build it so they will come” and so that investors will flood the door when infrastructure is in place. Who are to be blamed? Those who hope to profit from the economic benefit an airport are just as guilty, don’t just blame it on the salesman, the people in the office who decided the construction of the airport. However they will not sleep well every night without being pricked by guilt.

Ibaraki Airport now officially recognised as the 98th airport opened in Japan, has been making headlines for the past few months prior to its opening, with everyone’s questioning its very existance, the need for its construction. It opened at a tough time when bad news are pouring everywhere and after the bankruptcy of Japan Airlines, largest Airlines in Asia, whose main reasons contributing to its failure were believed to be from over expanding too quickly and relation with the past administration, often being pressured to operate from several airports that could hardly able to fill enough passengers on its flight.

With a new JAL, from now on being closely watched by the public and tendency to be scrutinized for one small mistake, it quickly turned down the offer when asked to consider flying into Ibaraki airport. No question asked. JAL’s rival, ANA, rejected using Ibaraki airport too. This explained why Ibaraki airport opened on the 11th of this month with only one single regular flight at opening and one domestic flight to commence a month later after opening.

No one would expect this to have happened. Those numbers were looking so promising and everyone thought the plan will take off. Again unfortunately the numbers were bloated to trick people into believing that decisions were not wrongly made. It is done so so that it will allow for multi-million dollars construction works to be passed. Not realizing that what is in demand are construction projects but not airports.

The transport ministry has released some number last week pointing why Japan has too many unprofitable airports. Of the results taken from a total of 75 airports, only 8 could beat its forecast, exceeding demand.

Actual demand for the use of airports is a far cry from its forecast, especially in many Prefectural airports. See figures below for the list of airports. Falling population and weak GDP are contributing factors apart from overly optimistic forecast and bad calculations.