Kansai International Airport

Kansai International Airport, which opened in September 1994, is the world’s first offshore airport built entirely on an artificial island in Osaka Bay off the Senshu coast. Operating 24 hours a day to global standards, it handles roughly 28 million travelers annually and connects to 82 cities in 23 countries. With multiple runways in the 4,000-meter class, it is one of Japan’s key aviation hubs. As demand for air travel was expected to grow after the liberalization of overseas travel in 1964, planning for a ‘second Kansai airport’ to complement Osaka International Airport began in 1968. Final construction costs reached 1.5 trillion yen. Phase 1 island construction was completed in 1991, and the airport opened in September 1994. Phase 2 construction began in 1999, but to reduce project costs, only the runway and minimal taxiways were developed first; Phase 2 was completed in August 2007. The First Terminal Building was designed with involvement from Italian architect Renzo Piano, and its roof is shaped to evoke an airplane wing—said to resemble a bird resting its wings when viewed from above. In October 2012, a dedicated low-cost carrier (LCC) Terminal 2 opened.