Tokyo Narita International Airport

    While Tokyo Narita International Airport (NRT) is probably the most well known of Tokyo's two major airports, its notoriety doesn't come from the fact that it is the busiest airport in Japan, because it's not.  That honor goes to Tokyo International Airport (better known as Tokyo Haneda).  NRT's fame comes being such a controversial airport.  Its construction caused the displacement of hundreds of farmers, who still protest against the airport's existence, much less its planned expansion.

    The airport does have a claim to fame other than controversy, however. In terms of the number of 747s operating in and out of the airport, NRT has more 747 operations than any other airport in the world.  This is probably because the tight restrictions to get into the airport require airlines to use the largest aircraft available and maximize yields rather than fly additional aircraft to the airport.  Almost every major airline in the world flies some version of the 747 into NRT.  Notable exceptions are those airlines who have no 747s in their fleets, like Delta and American.  Those airlines then typically fly a version of the 777 into NRT.  You can probably expect that NRT will eventually have a large number of A380s serving the airport once Airbus works out its production problems and starts producing aircraft for sale.

    The pictures below were all taken in 1997 on a stop through NRT as I flew back from Bangkok (BKK) to Seattle (SEA).