No. of Japanese passengers on int'l flights at Narita in Dec. marks rise

The combined number of Japanese passengers using Narita airport for outbound and inbound international flights stood at about 1,276,000 in December, marking the first year-on-year rise after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the operator said Thursday.

Narita International Airport Corp. attributed the recovery to waning influence of the natural disaster and the ensuing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, as well as the yen's recent surge against other major currencies.

The number of Japanese passengers using the airport, east of Tokyo, saw the biggest-ever decline of 29 percent on year in March following the disasters but it has since been on an upward trend, the company said.

The monthly figure in December increased from a year earlier for the first time since October 2010. The number of Japanese passengers in December 2010 totaled about 1,221,000, the operator said.

The number of foreign passengers decreased 10 percent from a year earlier to about 567,000 last month, but the margin of year-on-year decline has been on a recovery trend for months, it said.

Passengers on domestic flights increased 26 percent to 182,000, buoyed by Skymark Airlines Inc.'s launch of new domestic flights.

Throughout 2011, the number of Japanese passengers on international flights at Narita airport dropped 13 percent from the previous year to about 15,125,000, while that of foreign passengers declined 32 percent to 5,947,000, the operator said.