While the Covid pandemic has affected virtually all areas of aviation, Japan’s Nagoya Airport (Booth 2865) in Aichi Prefecture has had a rougher go of it than many. The country virtually sealed its borders to international traffic and required Nagoya Airport to shutter its customs, immigration, and quarantine (CIQ) facility from April 2020 to June 2022.

While the number of international business aviation landings at Nagoya had been trending upwards pre-Covid, the imposed restrictions dropped arrivals to just three in 2021—all foreign diplomatic flights with pre-approved clearance. Since CIQ resumed in June, Nagoya Airport assistant director Naoto Matsuoka said there have been 12 international business aircraft arrivals, compared with 66 at nearby Chubu Centrair International Airport.

Nagoya has a 9,000-foot runway, and private aircraft passengers are processed through a terminal dedicated to business aviation—with a distance of only 200 feet from the aircraft, through the CIQ inspection room, and to the vehicle parking lot, enabling arriving passengers to easily depart the airport.

The airport has a ramp with enough space to accommodate six Bombardier Global-sized aircraft at a time, and all private aircraft are handled by Aero Asahi, which has a 92,000-sq-ft (8,600-sq-m) hangar.

Aichi Prefecture is one of the manufacturing hubs of Japan and home to Toyota Motor, accounting for 15 percent of the country’s manufactured goods. Nagoya is located approximately halfway between Osaka and Tokyo with high-speed Shinkansen (bullet train) services linking those cities. Among its attractions is the Studio Ghibli theme park scheduled to open next month, which is a 30-minute drive from the airport.