is an international airport located in Kirishima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, northeast of Kagoshima-Chūō StationAIS Japan
in Kagoshima City. It is the second-busiest airport in

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

after Fukuoka Airport, serving 6.1 million passengers in 2018. The airport covers 187.7

hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. A ...

(464

acres The acre ( ) is a unit of land area used in the British imperial and the United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, ...

) and has one 3000m runway. Japan Air Commuter, a regional affiliate of

Japan Airlines Japan Airlines (JAL) is the flag carrier airline of Japan. JAL is headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport, Narita and Haneda Airport, Haneda airports, as well as secondary hubs in Osaka's Kansai ...

, and New Japan Aviation have their headquarters at the airport. Kagoshima Airport serves as the gateway to the

Satsunan Islands The is a geopolitical name for a group of islands that forms the northern part of the Ryukyu Islands. The whole island group belongs to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Major islands * Satsunan Islands ** Ōsumi Islands with: *** Tanegashima, Yak ...

Kagoshima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,527,019 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 9,187 Square kilometre, km2 (3,547 Square m ...

. As a result, the route between Tokyo

Haneda Airport , also known as and sometimes abbreviated to ''Tokyo-Haneda'', is the busier of the two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary domestic base of J ...

and Kagoshima Airport is the fifth busiest route in Japan. It was ranked seventh in the world in

Skytrax Skytrax (originally known as Inflight Research Services) is a United Kingdom–based consultancy headquartered in London that runs an airline and airport review website. Services Skytrax conducts research for commercial airlines, as well as t ...

’s World's Best Domestic Airports 2024.

Overview

The airport is located 30km northeast of Kagoshima City. Although access by train is poor, access via expressway is good because it is close to the E3 Kyushu Expressway Mizobe Kagoshima Airport Interchange.

History

The airport opened in 1972, replacing a former

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

airfield in the Kamoike area near the city center, which had served as the city's main airport since 1957. The site of the former airport was re-developed as a "

new town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...

" with office buildings and high-density housing projects, and is now the site of the

government office, among other buildings. The airport's runway had an initial length of 2,500 m, which was extended to 3,000 m in 1980. An international terminal opened in 1982, and a cargo terminal opened in 1987. Air Niugini,

Cathay Pacific Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, or simply Cathay Pacific, is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main airline hub, hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and its subsidiaries have schedule ...

China Airlines China Airlines (CAL; zh, t=中華航空, poj=Tiong-hôa Hâng-khong, p=Zhōnghuá Hángkōng, first=t, c=, s=) is the state-owned flag carrier of the Taiwan, Republic of China (Taiwan). It is one of Taiwan's two major airlines, along with E ...

and Nauru Airlines provided international service to Kagoshima from the 1970s to the 1980s, and JAL operated a route to Singapore via Hong Kong and Bangkok during the 1980s. Kagoshima served as the destination of the final scheduled

NAMC YS-11 The NAMC YS-11 is a turboprop airliner designed and built by the Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (NAMC), a Japanese consortium. It was the only post-war airliner to be wholly designed and manufactured in Japan until the development of t ...

flight in 2006.

Facilities

Kagoshima's domestic terminal has nine gates. ANA and JAL both operate lounges in the terminal. The international terminal has a single gate.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

References

External links

Airport website
* * {{Japanese airports Airports in Kagoshima Prefecture Airports established in 1972 1972 establishments in Japan Kirishima, Kagoshima