Progress on further enhancement of Narita International Airport and its noise countermeasures

摘要

This paper describes the progress on further enhancement of Narita International Airport, which is promoted by the airport company (NAA) and the Government, and its effectiveness of noise countermeasures. This enhancement aims for airport capacity expansion up to a maximum of 500,000 movements per year in future by means of extension of the existing parallel runway, construction of a new third runway and relaxation of night-time flight restrictions, in order to enhance international competitiveness of Narita International Airport in East Asia and to improve convenience for airport customers. Especially at night, the number of flight movements will increase greatly, so sleeping effects are concerned. A confirmation letters was exchanged at the Four-party Council, which is decision-making body for the enhancement, held in March 2018. Based on the confirmation letter, NAA is now promoting the construction of the inner windows in order to minimize the influence at night as a measure for relaxation of night-time restriction on Runway A operation. Furthermore, NAA plans to introduce the slide operation that changes take-off and landing time for each runway to ensure quiet time at night. This papei also describe the current noise countermeasures at Narita and reports the future issues of the enhancement.