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Old Posted Jul 11, 2009, 9:33 AM
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urbanflyer urbanflyer is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: 名古屋
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Nagoya Komaki Airport - The Terminal That Became A Mall

Yesterday went to AirportWalk, a new mall that was formerly the international terminal at Nagoya Airport, locally called Komaki after the city in which its located. This airport is still used by JAL for limited regional flights, but 95% of air traffic relocated to Central Japan International (Centrair) when it opened in 2005.

Carpark on the former terminal apron with jetbridges still attached to the building



Terminal side entry



Old departure information retained at the info counter



Typical scenes for anyone who has seen a recent Japanese mall











What makes this mall very different though is that the former International departures hall now doubles as a food court and funzone for kids





Not to mention that from the former boarding areas the runway can be clearly seen



A look outside in the other direction reveals why this airport was disliked by many - its literally surrounded by high density neighborhoods



AirportWalk even retains the old observation decks from the terminal



A zoom over to the terminal area revealing mysterious VP-CBA, commonly seen around the world but whose precise owner is unknown, as well as the usual JAL CRJ-200 and ERJ-170 aircraft.



Komaki's 1970s vintage control tower



Around the field there's a variety of interesting traffic...

JASDF KC-767 tankers



JASDF C-130 transports





JASDF executive/search and rescue transports (U-125A but actually Hawker 800)



Mitsubishi's modified MU-300 special research aircraft



Various helicopters (if you're into that kind of flying...haha)



Komaki's several hundred year old castle can be seen in the distance as well



A quick shot from the parking lot as a CRJ lined up on runway 34 - quite different from the heavy jets that would've been seen just a few years ago



A few views from the runway side mall parking lot - probably the best mall parking in the world



JA202J departs for Yamagata just before sundown





A gorgeous Beechcraft A36 Bonanza lonely on the ramp



Not a bad place to spend a day shopping at all - and definitely one of the best examples of large-scale adaptive land re-use anywhere!
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