Originally Posted by
blue vortex
All right this just isn’t true. I fly to HND a fair bit and we’re nearly always full in D1. A quick look at travelnet can prove it. Sure for a lot of people and NRT is going to be closer. Remember Stewart Airport in New York, the next best thing the reliever airport to solve all the problems. Sure it would be a lot closer for a lot of people, but it never materialized. The reality is as sailing said the company was losing a lot of money hubbing out of NRT. The Japanese found a workaround by building additional runways at HND (at great expense), but they managed to make that the preferred airport. Simple as that.
That has nothing to do with the airport or the airport location. Like I said a massive part of the Kanto plain would prefer Narita over Haneda. Why would a business man want to fight for a seat on a subway with no room for luggage over taking a reserved seat luxury train to the airport? Anywhere north of Tokyo station is the same timewise. Driving is better to Narita for all these people because you don’t have to drive through the meat of the city fighting traffic. So it is true. Talk to someone who lives in Ueno or Saitama.