16th ATRS WORLD CONFERENCE AIRPORT MANAGEMENT IN JAPAN – LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE UK

摘要

In Japan, Kansai airport is burdened with huge debt whilst many regional airports arefacing a decline in passenger numbers and poor financial performance. One possiblesolution could be the introduction of private sector management. It can be argued thatthe Japanese situation is somewhat similar to that in the UK in the late 1980s/1990s. Atthis time the monopoly position of the congested Heathrow airport began to be erodedwith an increasingly liberal environment and the development of many new services outof the regional airports where there was ample capacity. Currently in Japan the airportsserving Tokyo are congested whilst there is excess capacity in the regions and a moreliberal regulatory regime is being established.Therefore the overall aim is to investigate the possible involvement of private sectorairport management in Japan, particularly at Kansai, by undertaking a comparison withthe UK. There is a focus on the concession type of privatization model, andpackage/group ownership, as this currently seems the most relevant for Japan. Thefindings suggest that private sector involvement has the potential to be successful, as inthe UK, and may help overcome certain problems facing Japanese airports, especiallythose associated with the funding system and lack of integrated airport managementmodels. However financial problems at the airports, and in particular the huge debt atKansai, are likely to make it challenging to attract the private sector investors that areneeded.