Airports close to the city are growing in popularity again, meaning more options for time-pressed business travellers. Alex McWhirter and Erica Rae Chong report.
Over the past 40 years, many major cities in Asia, Europe and the US shared one problem – their main airport was overcrowded and there was little available land nearby for expansion.
So they all did the same thing – they took the drastic step of building larger, state-of-the-art airfields further out of town. At the same time, many of these cities’ original facilities were downgraded to handling domestic flights or shut down completely.
Look at Hong Kong, where Kai Tak – practically located downtown anyway – was closed in 1998 in favour of a new airport 34km away. A similar decision was taken in Singapore, where Paya Lebar was rejected in 1981 in favour of Changi. But, thankfully, in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur the aviation authorities retained their original airfields for limited use by domestic and regional services.
Has it been a success? Yes and no. Although the new airports have enabled carriers to expand their services and provided passengers with nicer facilities, travellers complain that they waste valuable time and money getting to and from these “far out” departure points.
In the case of Asia, the economic situation has changed dramatically since flagship airports such as Incheon in Seoul, Narita in Tokyo and Pudong in Shanghai opened. The mainland Chinese and South Korean economies have experienced phenomenal growth, and cross-strait flights linking Taiwan and mainland China have resumed after decades of suspension.
So, like the situation we see in Europe, not only has business travel by air increased but much more of it is now international. However, the inconvenience of reaching the new airfields means that arranging a short trip with adequate time at the other end becomes more problematic.
In the case of Tokyo, accessing the city’s main international airport at Narita (66km east of the centre) is akin to travelling the distance between London and Brighton. Granted, there are fast trains and comfortable buses that connect it with downtown Tokyo, but anyone foolish enough to hail a cab will fork out at least ¥21,000 (£160).
So the opening of “close-in” Haneda airport to international services is to be welcomed. Located 19km south of downtown, it was originally the city’s international airport but primarily became a domestic facility when Narita opened in 1978. However, this made making domestic connections difficult, with international passengers arriving into Narita having to trek to Haneda for their onward flight. As a result, Tokyo fell behind powerful regional hubs such as Incheon and Hong Kong.
No doubt in a bid to become more competitive, the Japanese authorities have decided to invite international services again. “Haneda aims to be the international 24-hour business hub airport catering to the high demand for flights to business cities in Asia,” says Masami Watanabe, deputy airport administrator for Haneda at Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau. Haneda reopened to long-haul traffic in October last year, and British Airways became the first European carrier to operate into the airport when it launched five-times-weekly flights in February (see panel, page 32).
Besides Tokyo, the aviation authorities in Shanghai and Taipei are also reopening their older airports to international flights, although those in question are regional rather than long-haul, so there are no services to Europe or the US. But executives who may be visiting several countries on an extended trip within the region will find these new facilities more convenient than schlepping out to the more widely known airfields.
Shanghai has begun expanding passenger capacity at its older Hongqiao airport, 13km from downtown, which had been relegated to handling domestic flights in favour of newer Pudong, 30km away. And last year new routes were launched to Taipei Songshan and Hong Kong.
At 10km, Taipei Songshan is much closer to the centre than the city’s main international gateway airport of Taoyuan, which is four times further away. Songshan is reconstructing both its terminals this year to meet passenger growth – Terminal 1 will be given over to international services with Terminal 2 covering domestic flights when they are complete in September. Right now, from there you can fly to Tokyo Haneda and Shanghai Hongqiao, and there are plans for a link with Seoul Gimpo.
The idea is to link Songshan with important cities in North East Asia, says Yang Gwo Feng, airport office director at Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration. “Time is the most important thing for the business traveller. Travel between these cities can be reduced to day trips,” he says. “From Taipei, one could take the subway to Songshan in the morning, lunch on crabs in Shanghai at noon and sip tea in Tokyo in the afternoon. If an agreement [for air service] can be reached with Gimpo then dining on ginseng chicken in Myeong-dong will be a possibility too.”
Gimpo is situated 26km from downtown, as against modern Incheon’s 52km, and was another airport downgraded to domestic use that is being reopened for regional flights.
There are now services to Japan’s Haneda, Osaka Kansai and Nagoya, and Shanghai’s Hongqiao.
So what does the situation look like elsewhere? We Europeans may grumble about our overcrowded airports, but in comparison with the rest of the world we are truly fortunate. No other region has so many large international airports near to city centres. It means executives can accomplish short trips without wasting valuable time travelling between the city centre and the airport. It also means affordable taxis and low fares for those who reach the airport by public transport.
Frankfurt, one of the busiest hubs in mainland Europe, is a mere 12km from downtown and can be reached swiftly and inexpensively by taxi or S-Bahn train. Other examples are Amsterdam, where the city’s world-famous Schiphol airport is 14km out of town, Dusseldorf, which serves the industrial Rhine-Ruhr region from just 9km away from the city, and Nuremberg, which is only 5km out and serves Germany’s stationery and toy industries.
Every international airport in Switzerland is close to downtown too. Zurich’s is 10km away, while the facility serving affluent Geneva is 5km out, and multinational Basel is just an 11km journey. Copenhagen airport, a significant hub not just for Europe but the entire Nordic region, is also outstandingly close to downtown, at 8km away, and the EU capital of Brussels is only 13km from its runways.
Some European countries, like these, actively encourage airports close to the city, while others simply tolerate them or shut them down. London is a shining example of a city that has encouraged close-in flying. It’s the only one in recent times that has specifically built a centrally located airport – London City (LCY) opened in 1987 and is located 16km east of Westminster (to download our online guide to LCY, which includes information on new developments, carriers and nearby hotels, visit businesstraveller.com/london-city).
Its convenience means that 60 per cent of LCY’s passengers are travelling on business – this rises to 90 per cent at peak times – and they rate the airport for its speedy processing times on departure and arrival. Richard Gooding, LCY’s chief executive, told Business Traveller: “We save people time. The core passenger using our airport is one who can get there easily and pass through the facilities quickly.”
The difficulties that airlines face is that LCY’s short runway and steep landing approach limits the airfield to short flights. But that did not prevent British Airways being innovative enough in September 2009 to launch direct flights to New York JFK, circumventing the runway restriction on the way out by making a refuelling stop in Ireland’s Shannon.
Elsewhere, the situation may not be as positive. Take Berlin – you might imagine that a capital city with a population of four million would prefer to have two airports rather than one, but the city authorities have decided to create one new facility. They are now rebuilding the Soviet-era airport at Schoenefeld and will rename it Berlin Brandenburg International (BBI).
As a result, historical Tempelhof – just 7km away and, arguably, the world’s finest close-in airport when it was in operation – was shut down in 2008, while Tegel, currently the main international airport and a convenient 8km out of town, will close too when BBI opens in 2012. Berlin Brandenburg is 20km south of Berlin but the city is sprawling, so passengers in the north will find it remote compared with Tegel.
There was a similar scenario in Munich. When the new and larger airport opened in 1992, it was placed 37km outside town, while the existing Riem, 8km away, was closed the same year. Oslo’s original Fornebu airport was also 8km out but it too closed when the new facility at Gardermoen opened in 1998 a lengthy 50km away.
Stockholm and Gothenburg have the best of both worlds – the Swedish cities can boast smaller close-in airfields with larger ones farther out. The Swedish capital’s Bromma airport (9km out) is limited to domestic flights, with Arlanda (42km) handling both domestic and international services. Gothenburg has City airport located 14km away, with main Landvetter 25km outside town. City airport has been revitalised with the arrival of low-cost carriers Ryanair and Wizz Air. In 2001 it handled 9,000 passengers and by 2008 the figure had risen to 844,000.
Milan Linate, 8km from the centre, is the favoured arrival point for business people as Malpensa, the city’s main airport, is 48km out. Originally downgraded to a domestic airport when Malpensa was rebranded as Italy’s main gateway, it took fierce opposition from foreign carriers before the Italian authorities agreed to allow foreign airlines to use Linate for short-haul flights.
What about across the Atlantic? The US welcomes both kinds of airports. Look at Washington DC, where Dulles International is located 42km outside the US capital, compared with 8km for Ronald Reagan National. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, there were moves afoot to shut National permanently on security concerns as it is so close to the White House and the Pentagon – indeed, flights taking off to the north must take a steep turn to avoid flying over these sensitive areas. But the closure never happened, despite it being on lockdown for a few weeks after 9/11.
In Chicago, domestic passengers can choose between Midway, 19km from the centre, or the main O’Hare facility, 29km away. Another example is seen at Dallas and Houston, where these cities’ older airports at Love Field (Dallas), which is 9km out compared with 24km for Fort Worth, and William P Hobby (Houston), which is 16km out as against 36km for George Bush Intercontinental, remain bustling airfields, albeit with restrictions on the range of flights that can be operated.
Both Texan close-in airports are dominated by Southwest Airlines, which was the world’s first budget carrier and possibly the most successful. But in the early days, after these cities’ big new airports were opened several decades ago, the authorities ruled that only certain domestic routes could operate at Hobby and Love Field. The idea was to protect the investors of the new airfields, and the Wright Amendment of 1979 specified that Southwest out of Dallas Love Field could serve only destinations in neighbouring states with nonstop flights.
But the carrier partially circumvented this restriction, so instead of being able to fly direct from Love Field to New York, passengers would either change planes en route or take a multistop service. And people tolerated longer flights because of Southwest’s low fares, which is why Southwest has, for many years, only operated a fleet of one-class B737s, even though it serves cities throughout the US.
In Canada we have the odd case of a state-of-the-art airport located many kilometres out of town, and built at huge expense, actually being closed down in favour of an older, downgraded facility. Flushed with the success of Montréal’s Expo 67 World’s Fair and hopeful that the city would attract more and more visitors, the local authorities built a brand-new airport at Mirabel, which was 55km out of town compared with the city’s then main airport at Dorval (since renamed Pierre Elliot Trudeau International), which is far closer to downtown, at 20km.
Mirabel was opened in 1975 in time for the 1976 Summer Olympics and, to ensure its success, Dorval was then downgraded to handling domestic flights. At that time, Mirabel was the largest international airport in the world by surface area and was supposed to be a Canadian showcase. But its distant location was unpopular with transit passengers and airlines, and soon became a “white elephant”.
Montréal residents resented trekking to Mirabel while people transiting between international and domestic services faced a long bus journey between the two airfields. So the extra passengers it was meant to serve never materialised – instead, they shifted to rival Toronto. In 1997 the decision was taken to close Mirabel to passenger flights (it now handles freight) and reinstate Dorval as the city’s main gateway.
So could what happened in Montréal be replicated in Tokyo? It’s highly unlikely. Japan is an island with a much larger population than Canada, and both Tokyo’s airports are already extremely busy so the city needs all the aviation capacity it has. If Narita were closed, Haneda could not cope.
In conclusion, one might question the wisdom of those authorities that have closed popular and convenient airports. Admittedly, maybe there is not a place in today’s environment for Berlin Tempelhof or Munich Riem, which are close to residential areas, but it seems a waste to consider closing Berlin Tegel entirely. Perhaps consideration could have been given to it being turned over to a limited number of short flights by quiet, commuter planes.
So now you can see why some city authorities took the decisions they did. They know that if their popular older airport remains open it will be more difficult to ensure the success of a new facility. Montreal Mirabel proves the point.
PROS AND CONS OF USING CLOSE-IN AIRPORTS
Pros
- Convenience
- Time saving
- Easier and cheaper to reach from downtown
- Limited airlines, routes and lounges
- Restricted opening hours a possibility
- Runway restrictions may specify use of aircraft that may not offer the best in-flight product
HELLO HANEDA
British Airways launched its new service to Tokyo’s Haneda on February 19 following the reopening of the city’s “close-in” airport to long-haul traffic, writes Michelle Mannion. It is the first European airline to provide a direct link to Haneda (Air France codeshares on JAL’s daily service into Paris Charles de Gaulle) and is operating five times a week, departing London Heathrow daily except for Tuesdays and Wednesdays, using a four-class B777. BA’s daily service to “far-out” Narita remains unchanged. So will other European carriers follow suit? Perhaps not in a hurry, unless Japan’s authorities relax the slot constraints they have put in place to help protect Narita. As previously reported by Business Traveller (see In Focus, businesstraveller.com/archive/2010/july-august-2010), European carriers can fly in and out of Haneda only between 11pm and 6am – add in Heathrow’s own curfew and, in the case of BA, that means flights in the summer schedule depart London at 0910 and arrive at Haneda at 0455 the following day, departing Haneda at 0625 and landing in London at 1040. Jamie Cassidy, BA’s area general manager for Asia-Pacific, says: “Marrying the times at Tokyo and Heathrow is a bit problematic. We’re grateful that the Japanese authorities have opened Haneda up but what we’d like to see in the near future is that window widening, which would allow us more freedom in terms of when we can arrive and depart.” Cassidy says the airline is pushing for this and that the UK government is helping. “I’m fairly confident it will happen,” he says. “I think it will probably take a year or two.” Lufthansa has landing rights for Haneda but so far has not made moves to launch flights. Otto F Benz, Lufthansa’s general manager for Japan, says: “We are interested in starting operations at Haneda as soon as possible. It is the hub of our Japanese partner, ANA, and provides fast connections to a large network of domestic flights. However, the early-morning departure slots offered are not suitable to allow any transfer connections – they are inconvenient for local passengers and, thus, are not customer friendly. We are in close contact with the relevant authorities to resolve the issue and facilitate market-oriented connections and landing and departure times.” In the meantime, there’s no doubting the convenience that flying into Haneda provides in terms of getting into the city centre. After arriving into the brand-new international terminal on BA’s inaugural early-morning flight, it took only a few minutes to walk to the well-organised immigration hall, with baggage immediately behind it, and it was then a half-hour drive in minimal traffic to downtown (for a full review of BA’s inaugural Heathrow-Haneda service, visit businesstraveller.com/tried-and-tested). The arrivals area is also directly connected to stations for both the monorail, which takes 18 minutes to reach downtown, and the Keikyu train line, with services running from about 5am to midnight – the shuttle bus between the international and domestic terminals also operates between these times. If you are arriving earlier be aware that you will not have so many options at your disposal. The airport’s good domestic connections are also a boon – BA’s Oneworld partner, JAL, for example, operates 185 departures a day to 33 points in Japan. Richard Tams, BA’s head of UK and Ireland sales and marketing, says: “JAL has been very helpful in getting us into Haneda, and its flight connections have helped make the service viable. Feeding into JAL’s big domestic hub is very important to us.” Other Oneworld members serving the airport include American Airlines, which inaugurated its own daily service to New York on the same day as BA, and Cathay Pacific. So what will be the impact on Narita? Cassidy says: “That will depend on how much [the authorities] open up Haneda but I can see it still being a major airport in Tokyo. I suspect it will keep operating predominantly as an international airport, but I think you’ll see growth at Haneda in the next few years. Japan is such a vibrant destination for both business and leisure, I can only see them both doing well.”- BA flights from Heathrow to Haneda with a five-night stay at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo start from £1,839 pp in May and June. Visit ba.com/tokyo or call +44 (0)844 493 0758.
