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The announcement came on January 8 from the Ministry for Land Infrastructure Transport and Tourism (MLIT), with effect from March28, Sapporo New Chitose Airport, in Hokkaido will increase its landing and take-off slot for foreign carriers currently only allowed on Wednesday between 11:20am and 1:50pm to both Tuesday and Wednesday, with a wider time slot, between 12:00noon and 4:00pm, allowing it to cater a higher number of foreign carriers to use this airport.

The freeing of landing and take-off slots for foreign carriers would not have been made possible without Japan Air Self Defence Force endorsement, which it is sharing its airspace and airport runway. By relaxing the restrictions, it will help to increase the number of foreign tourists, which the move is inline with the current “Visit Japan Campaign” with a target to attract 25 million visitor arrivals by 2019. Currently, international flights may use the airport from 5:00pm on Fridays and all day on Saturdays and Sundays, with no changes planned for these times.

The changes will most likely to entail an increase in flight frequency by both existing Chinese and Russian Airlines using Sapporo, and prompting other Chinese carriers to consider launching new flight services. The number of Chinese visitors have been steadily growing, and efforts are made to expand the Chinese travel market which it hope this will make up for the loss of visitors from South Korea and elsewhere as a result of the global economic crisis.