Hakodate Airport

Hakodate Airport (函館空港, Hakodate Kūkō) (IATA: HKD, ICAO: RJCH) is an airport located 7.6 km (4.7 mi) east^[2] of Hakodate Station in Hakodate, a city in Hokkaidō, Japan. It is owned by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and operated by Hokkaido Airports [ja].

Hakodate Airport 函館空港 Hakodate Kūkō
IATA: HKD ICAO: RJCH WMO: 47488
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Operator	Hokkaido Airports [ja]
Serves	Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
Elevation AMSL	112 ft / 34 m
Coordinates	41°46′12″N 140°49′19″E
Website	English website
Map
RJCH Location in Hokkaidō Show map of Hokkaido RJCH Location in Japan Show map of Japan
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 12/30 3,000 9,843 Asphalt/concrete
Statistics (2015)
Passengers 1,772,052 Cargo (metric tonnes) 8,433 Aircraft movement 18,129
Source: Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism[1]

History

Hakodate airport opened in 1961 with a single, 1,200-meter runway. A new terminal upgrade and runway extension to 2,000 m became operational in 1971. The runway was extended further to 2,500 m in 1978 and to 3,000 m in 1999. A new terminal building opened in 2005.^[3]

On September 6, 1976, Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko defected to the West by landing a MiG-25 Foxbat aircraft at Hakodate Airport.^[4]

On June 21, 1995, All Nippon Airways Flight 857, a scheduled Boeing 747 flight from Tokyo to Hakodate, was hijacked by Fumio Kutsumi, a Tokyo bank employee armed with a screwdriver. Kutsumi claimed to be acting on behalf of Aum Shinrikyo cult group leader Shoko Asahara. The aircraft landed in Hakodate and stayed on the runway overnight for 15 hours before riot police stormed the aircraft at dawn and freed the passengers.^[5]

Airlines and destinations

The terminal interior

Airlines	Destinations
Air Do	Nagoya–Centrair, Tokyo–Haneda
All Nippon Airways	Osaka–Itami, Tokyo–Haneda
ANA Wings	Osaka–Itami, Sapporo–Chitose Seasonal: Nagoya–Centrair
Hokkaido Air System	Okushiri, Sapporo–Okadama
Hong Kong Airlines	Seasonal: Hong Kong[6]
Ibex Airlines	Sendai
J-Air	Osaka–Itami
Japan Airlines	Tokyo–Haneda
Starlux Airlines	Taipei–Taoyuan[7]
Tigerair Taiwan	Taipei–Taoyuan[8]

Statistics

Annual passenger traffic at HKD airport. See Wikidata query.

Ground transportation

Scheduled buses operate to Hakodate Station and the Onuma Prince Hotel.^[9]

In popular culture

• The animated film Detective Conan: Magician of the Silver Sky depicts an emergency landing at the airport.

References

1. "Hakodate Airport" (PDF). Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
2. AIS Japan Archived 2016-05-17 at the Portuguese Web Archive
3. 日本の空港/VFRパイロットの飛行場・ヘリポート情報誌！. www.dgraph.co.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2017-04-17.
4. Dowling, Stephen (2016-09-05). "The pilot who stole a secret Soviet fighter jet". BBC. Retrieved 2017-04-17.
5. Reid, T. R. (1995-06-22). "JAPANESE POLICE STORM PLANE, GRAB HIJACKER". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-04-17.
6. "Hong Kong Airlines NW23 Network Additions – 11OCT23". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
7. "Starlux Adds Taipei – Hakodate and Taichung – Macau in February and March 2024". KN Aviation. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
8. "Tigerair Taiwan NS23 Japan Operations – 10MAR23". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
9. HAKODATE Airport 函館空港ビルデング株式会社【アクセス】. airport.ne.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2017-12-02. Retrieved 2017-04-17.

External links

Media related to Hakodate Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• (in English) Hakodate Airport Terminal Building Co., Ltd.
• Hakodate Airport Guide from Japan Airlines
• Current weather for RJCH at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for HKD at Aviation Safety Network