Haneda international flights to resume on Oct 31

Tokyo's Haneda Airport will resume its handling of regular international flights for the first time in 32 years on October 31st.

Construction is now underway at the airport for a 4th runway and a new international terminal.

The transport ministry has decided to open the new runway and international terminal on October 21st, and to start services of regular international flights, mainly to Europe and the United States, on October 31st.

The 4th runway will allow the airport to handle 144,000 more landings and takeoffs annually. The airport will allocate 60,000 of them to international flights.

International flights out of Haneda are currently limited to short-distance chartered flights mainly to China and South Korea.

Haneda primarily handles domestic flights, while Narita Airport, which is farther than Haneda from downtown Tokyo, handles most international flights due to a government policy to separate their roles.