‫ە‬Messages from Departments and Centers of NILIM Support by the infrastructure for aviation
growth strategies
HASEGAWA Kou,
Director of the Airport Department(Key words) growth strategies, policy simulation, regional stimulation by an airport,
stock management
1. State of and growth strategies for aviation andairports
On October 2010, at Haneda Airport, the fourth
runway and new international terminal building began
service, initiating full-scale service on internationalroutes. At almost the same time, local approval forincreasing the number of flights at Narita Airport wasobtained, greatly expanding the airport capacity of theTokyo region. It has been assumed that the long period
when both Narita and Haneda were operated at full
capacity, and hence, unable to satisfy airport demand,
had a severe impact on the economy of Japan. With
nearby Asian countries completing large international
airports and vigorously ensuring their competitive
strength, resolving this problem has been an urgent
challenge. But we believe that we must prepare for thetime when, as a consequence of the size of Japan’s
economy and the further growth predicted to occur inAsia, capacity again exceeds demand, by studying thefurther expansion of our aviation capacity by all
possible means. On the other hand, critics havepointed out that we have many unprofitable regional
airports. In May, the growth strategy of the Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism was completedand released. Aviation is included among growthstrategy fields, including (1) promoting athoroughgoing open-sky policy, (2) strengthening
Haneda and Narita to increase the inter-citycompetitiveness of the Tokyo region, (3) takingradical measures to achieve more efficient airport
operation by taking advantage of the wisdom andcapital of the private sector, (4) aggressively
strengthening airports by improving their balance
sheets, (5) promoting truly necessary aviation
networks, and (6) expanding benefits for users byencouraging participation in LCC. In this regard, the proposed budget for 2011 wasprepared incorporating the reduction of the aviationfuel tax and introducing measures to unify themanagement of the Kansai Airport and Osaka
International Airport. At the same time, project costs
were sharply cut and maintenance regulations
stiffened. And in parallel, we have conducted open sky
negotiations with the member countries of the ASEAN,
and have formed a committee to study ways toimprove airport operation and proposed specificmethods such as integrating airport management(runways and other basic facilities, terminal buildings
and other related facilities which are now separately
managed in airports managed by the nationalgovernment,) and privatizing airports. Our mission is to use the infrastructure to support
aviation growth strategies. In the infrastructure field,
the age of priority on new infrastructure has given
away to an era when operation of infrastructure isemphasized, so we now focus on developing methods
which we can apply throughout the aviation field totackle challenges such as finding ways to effectively
use existing airports or to effectively maintain existing
facilities. An outline of these follows. 2. To expand benefits for users by promoting open
skies and LCC and enhancing the competitivenessof cities—Improving precision of demand simulation
methods—
The advance of open skies is counted on to promotefrequent flights by smaller aircraft at airports inJapan’s large metropolitan regions and also tostrengthen hub functions of multiple airports in aregion, but the problem is to decide how to use
multiple airports to maximize convenience for users.
Cost reductions achieved by promoting LCC now
offer the possibility of creating brand new regionalroutes. There is also a growing need for policy
simulations capable of showing what demand will
emerge under what kinds of rules and policies. Our
department has been developing and improving amethod of predicting demand for air transport, and is
now working to improve this method by accounting
for the actions of airlines, and we are counting onthese playing roles as policy simulation tools. We
hope that developing these technologies will result inopen skies and in concrete measures to promote LCC
based on open skies, providing benefits for users. We are also conducting research on ways to quickly
ensure an alternate route when an international airport
transport center or domestic trunk aviation routecenter cannot function as a result of an earthquake orvolcanic eruption. When there are shortcomings inactual circumstances, an immediate response isnecessary. To ensure international competitiveness, itis very important to resolve this problem. ‫ە‬Messages from Departments and Centers of NILIM

3. To maintain aviation networks which are truly
necessary—Aiming to create airports that stimulate regions andto measure their stimulation effects—
This concerns regional routes which seem to havebeen maintained with internal support by the airline,
but judging that regions should take the lead inensuring air transport services, efforts should be madeto maintain services, develop tourism, or stimulate theregion, through cooperation, including grants, etc.,with airlines. Our department is conducting research toclarify characteristics of use in order to be able toobtain support taking advantage of the properties ofairports to introduce measures to stimulate the region
through tourism etc. And transparency is needed toobtain the understanding of the local residents
regarding support measures by the region. It is also
necessary to quantify the impact of airports on local
economies, and to clarify other non-economic effects.
We are studying methods of measuring effects which
are not accounted for in past cost-effects manuals. We
hope these will contribute to the maintenance ofaviation networks. 4. Towards radically more efficient airport
management
—Stock management of airport facilities—
Integrating the management of airports andprivatizing airports in order to benefit from thewisdom and capital of the private sector has beensuggested, but there are many airports which failed to
become profitable even after unification. Overall
strategies must be studied, but more efficientmaintenance and operation are also required. As
facilities have aged, increasing the need for repairs
and reconstruction, the questions we must answer are
how should we conduct day-to-day management tominimize these tasks, or how can we carry them out
using the least possible labor. It is essential to improve
efficiency, while ensuring safety and security, which
are issues with priority over growth strategies. One characteristic of an airport is that it possesses avast paved area without obstacles, or in other words,
without any targets. We have developed amaintenanceinspection
systemusingGPS
supplemented with information from a multifunctionaltransport satellite in order to quickly identify defective
locations, repair them, and manage them continually.

Site

DGPS receivePortable terminal
Airport coordinates
X2500.000
Y430.000
One challenge is improving the efficiency of grass

cutting, a task which accounts for a large part ofmaintenance costs. Specialized technologies are skillfully used andprovided because in Japan, it has been necessary toconstruct hub airports in particular on locations withpoor ground conditions and to expand their paved
areas. In addition to enacting design standards for new
facilities as we already have, we have prepared draft
instructions for repair work, which will be the major
issue in the future. It incorporates measures tostrengthen the weak points, which are joints and edges,
and which have been studied experimentally. To perform design according to the way paving isused, we have established a theoretical design method
based on the degree of fatigue of facilities, and alsostudied a design method based on probability inresponse to the trend towards performance design. 
It is necessary to fly aircraft according to schedule,
and to maintain and repair facilities without impacting
this activity. Non-destructive inspection methods are
one way to achieve this, so we have applied the FWD
based inspection method to a new design method, andhave developed an infrared beam based separation
detection method. We are also studying the possibilityof using optical fibers as sensors. Example of monitoring using infrared beam images

Range of infrared image

Separated part