basic information

This page is about domestic air travel in Japan. Please check also our pages about discount air tickets and international air travel to Japan.

Airlines

Domestic air travel is dominated by the JAL Group and the ANA Group, which each consist of several airlines and serve over fifty airports across the country. In addition, there are several smaller airline companies competing with JAL and ANA on the country's most popular routes.

Airports

Tokyo's Haneda Airport is by far Japan's busiest airport, handling most of the capital's domestic flights. Tokyo's Narita Airport handles mostly international flights and only a very small number of domestic flights.

Osaka's Kansai Airport serves both, international and domestic flights. It took over a large share of traffic (mainly international) formerly handled by Osaka's second airport, Itami Airport. Nevertheless, Itami Airport remains Japan's second busiest hub for domestic air traffic.

Other major airports in Japan include Nagoya's Central Japan Airport, Fukuoka Airport, Sapporo's Shin-Chirose Airport, Kobe Airport and Okinawa's Naha Airport. See a few more important airports on the map below:

Airfare

Thanks to the deregulation of Japan's airline industry and increasing competition from discount airlines, domestic airfares have dropped dramatically in recent years, and airplanes have become an economical, sometimes cheaper alternative to the shinkansen (bullet train) on some routes.

While regular fares remain expensive, it is the many discount offers, which have made domestic air travel in Japan more attractive. A special offer, only available to foreign tourists, are the so called Japan Air Passes, which let you use any domestic flight for a low fixed cost of about 12,000 Yen.

Please visit the Discount Air Ticket page for more details.

Typical one way fares for selected routes are shown in the table below:

Route	Airline	Approx. Regular One Way Fare	Typical Discounted One Way Fare
Tokyo - Sapporo	JAL/ANA Air Do Skymark	30,000 Yen 25,000 Yen 19,000 Yen	12,000 - 21,000 Yen 10,000 - 18,000 Yen 10,000 - 18,000 Yen
Tokyo - Fukuoka	JAL/ANA Skymark	33,000 Yen 20,000 Yen	13,000 - 22,000 Yen 10,000 - 19,000 Yen
Tokyo - Osaka/Kobe	JAL/ANA Skymark	20,000 Yen 10,000 Yen	10,000 - 12,000 Yen 5,000 - 7,000 Yen
Tokyo - Okinawa	JAL/ANA Skymark	37,000 Yen 24,000 Yen	13,000 - 32,000 Yen 10,000 - 20,000 Yen
Osaka - Sapporo	JAL/ANA	37,000 Yen	13,000 - 33,000 Yen
Osaka - Fukuoka	JAL/ANA	20,000 Yen	11,000 - 15,000 Yen
Osaka - Okinawa	JAL/ANA	30,000 Yen	11,000 - 27,000 Yen
Nagoya - Sapporo	JAL/ANA	33,000 Yen	14,000 - 30,000 Yen
Nagoya - Fukuoka	JAL/ANA	23,000 Yen	11,000 - 15,000 Yen
Nagoya - Okinawa	JAL/ANA	35,000 Yen	14,000 - 30,000 Yen

Any advice or questions? Voice them in the forum!

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