is an international airport located northeast of

Niigata Station is a major railway station in Chūō-ku, Niigata, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The station is in the center of Niigata City, the largest city on the Sea of Japan coast in Honshu. It forms the central station for the ...

AIS Japan
/ref> in Niigata, Japan.

History

The first airport on the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

coast of Japan was opened on an island in the

Shinano River The , known as the in its upper reaches, is the longest and widest river in Japan and the third largest by basin area (behind the Tone River and Ishikari River). It is located in northeastern Honshu, rising in the Japanese Alps and flowing g ...

in 1929. This airport was moved to what was then the village of Matsugazakahama in 1930, and was renamed Niigata Airport. It was requisitioned for use by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in 1941, and came under the control of the

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was returned to Japanese civilian control on March 31, 1958, on which date commercial flight operations were resumed. International services were started in 1973, with scheduled service to

Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( ) is the largest city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China–Russia border, at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, about north of Vladivostok. As of the 2021 Russian c ...

and Niigata Airport became historically an important gateway for traffic to and from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, which among other purposes were used to export Niigata-area agricultural products to Russia; however, flights were reduced from winter 2010 as more slots became available for Russia service at

Narita International Airport , also known as Tokyo-Narita International Airport or simply Narita Airport, formerly and originally known as , is the secondary international airport serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the only other one being Haneda Airport (HND). It is about e ...

near

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. The airport saw several major service expansions in the spring of 2012, when

China Eastern Airlines China Eastern Airlines (branded as China Eastern) is a major airline in China, headquartered in Changning, Shanghai, Changning, Shanghai. It is one of the three major airlines in the country, along with Air China and China Southern Airlines. ...

Fuji Dream Airlines is a Japanese regional airline headquartered in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture. It operates a fleet of 15 Embraer E-Jets with bases at Fukuoka Airport, Kobe Airport, Nagoya Airfield and Shizuoka Airport. The airline commenced ...

and

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is a Japanese airline headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. ANA operates services to both domestic and international destinations and is Japan's largest airline, ahead of its main rival flag carrier Japan Airlines. the airline has approximate ...

announced service to Shanghai, Nagoya and Narita respectively.

Airlines and destinations

The following destinations are served from Niigata:

Ground transportation

Scheduled "limousine bus" service, heavily subsidized by

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,131,009 (1 July 2023) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

, is provided to and from

every 20 minutes. Niigata Airport currently has no direct rail access, although regional authorities have conducted studies aimed at potentially extending the Joetsu Shinkansen high-speed rail line or other nearby ordinary rail lines to the airport.

References

External links

Official website

Niigata Airport Building
{{niigata-geo-stub Airports in Chūbu region Transport buildings and structures in Niigata Prefecture Buildings and structures in Niigata (city) Transport in Niigata (city) 1929 establishments in Japan Airports established in 1929