Nagoya Komaki Airport - The Terminal That Became A Mall

urbanflyer · #1 Posted **Jul 11, 2009, 9:33 AM**

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!

staff · #2 Posted **Jul 11, 2009, 12:13 PM**

What an awesome place-- would love to visit some time. And great pics of it,too, urbanflyer. Haven't seen you around here in a while!

Btw, Frankfult?

Rail Claimore · #3 Posted **Jul 12, 2009, 6:25 AM**

I need to hit this place up next time I'm in town...

ltsmotorsport · #4 Posted **Jul 12, 2009, 6:47 AM**

Nice little scene they got there.

theWatusi · #5 Posted **Jul 12, 2009, 1:30 PM**

nice reuse

Sulley · #6 Posted **Jul 13, 2009, 6:11 PM**

Amazing, only in Japan.

dchan · #7 Posted **Jul 13, 2009, 6:57 PM**

Very nice reuse. Nice pics, urbanflyer.

Of course, you can't do this with every airport. This airport terminal/mall was at least close to a city, that is, at least walking distance away. But you couldn't do it with DIA: it would be completely impossible, or at least unreasonable.

Strange Meat · #8 Posted **Jul 13, 2009, 9:43 PM**

Really cool.

FREKI · #9 Posted **Jul 14, 2009, 1:03 AM**

Looks pretty cool...

Hot Rod · #10 Posted **Jul 21, 2009, 8:34 AM**

very nice. I always wondered what they would do with the old 'new' terminal - I had thought they would just operate the domestic from there and tear down all of the old - but hey. Not bad.