New airport to supply Kitakyushu

Kitakyushu city officials opened the city's new off-shore airport yesterday that will link it to cities around the globe.

Located half an hour from the centre of Kitakyushu on Kyushu, Japan's south-western island, it replaces the older inland airport.

Flights go to other Japanese cities as well as Vladivostok in Russia, Shanghai in China and Hawaii in a move to improve business and tourism in to the city. The new airport is open from 5am to 2am daily, much longer than the old airport and making day trips much more likely.

The old airport, which shut on Wednesday, could only handle 300,000 travellers annually whereas the new one aims to attract up to 1.5 million every year.

A sub-tropical island, Kitakyushu is home to firms such as Toyota and Kitakyushu is known for Hiraodai karst plateau and Mount Adachi, which are popular sites.

People wishing to travel to Kitakyushu, Japan's third largest island, are now spoilt for choice; in addition to Kitakyushu, four other fairly large airports lie within 100km of it.