Kansai International Airport is located on an artificial island in Osaka Bay, Japan. It was constructed in the late 1980s and early 1990s to serve the major cities of Osaka and Kobe, replacing an existing airport that could not be expanded. The airport's construction involved building a massive sea wall and filling the enclosed area with dirt and sand to create the new island. It cost over $20 billion to build and was a major civil engineering feat. The airport opened in 1994 and has since expanded with a second runway and terminal built in the 2000s. It now handles over 1,000 flights per week and serves as an important international and domestic hub airport.

1. Floating Airport
Presented by
Abhishek Mondal (12NA30002)
Department of Ocean Engineering & Naval Architecture
IIT Kharagpur

2. Floating Airport
• Built and situated on a very large floating
structure (VLFS).
• The first discussion in 1930 for trans-
Atlantic passenger flights.
• Increasing population and expensive land
necessitate it to save economy.
• Diminish pollution, aircraft noise and
reduce risks of aircraft crashes to the land-
locked population

3. Kansai International Airport, Japan
 An international airport located on an artificial island in the middle of Osaka
Bay, 38 km southwest of Ōsaka Station, located within three municipalities
including Izumisano (north), Sennan (south) & Tajiri (center) in Osaka
Prefecture, Japan.
 The airport serves as an international hub for All Nippon Airways, Japan
Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines and also serves as a hub for Peach, the first
international low-cost carrier in Japan.

4. Kansai International Airport (KIX)

5. History
• In the 1960s, when the Kansai region was rapidly losing trade to Tokyo, planners
proposed a new airport near Kobe and Osaka. Osaka International Airport was
surrounded by buildings, so could not be expanded and many of its neighbors
had filed complaints because of noise pollution problems.
• Planners decided to build the airport offshore. The new airport was part of a
number of new developments to revitalize Osaka, which had lost economic and
cultural ground to Tokyo for most of the century.
• Initially, the airport was planned to be built near Kobe, but the city of Kobe
refused the plan, so the airport was moved to a more southerly location on Osaka
Bay. There, it could be open 24 hours per day, unlike its predecessor in the city.

6. Key Features
 Located on a biggest artificial (man-made) island (4 X 2.5 km )in Osaka Bay in
Japan.
 Designed overcome the extremely high risks of earthquakes, typhoons & storm
surges of up to 3 m (10 ft.)
 Construction started in 1987. The sea wall was finished in 1989.
 Opened for flights in September 1994
 Construction cost is over $20 billion
 On 19 April 2001 the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) named KIA the
2nd ranked (after Panama Canal) civil engineering project of the 20th century.

7. Airport Layout

8. Construction of KIX
Stage Activity Time
I Subsurface Investigation 1 year
II Sea Wall Construction 2 years
III Landfilling 4 years
IV Terminal Construction 2 years

9. Construction of KIX
• KIX consists of 2 runways (A and B) & 2 terminals
• The sea wall was made of rock and 48,000 concrete blocks
• 10,000 workers and 10 million work hours and 80 ships were required to
complete the 30 meter layer of earth over the sea floor.
• It’s the most expensive civil works project in modern history after twenty years of
planning, three years of construction and several billion dollars of investment.
• Terminal construction commenced in 1991 & the Airport opened in 1994.

10. Construction of KIX
Sea Wall
Construction

11. Sky Gate Bridge
In 1990, a 3 km
bridge was
completed to
connect the
island to the
mainland
at Rinku Town,
at a cost of $1
billion.

12. Sky Gate Bridge

13. Expansion
 4,000 m (13,000 ft.) second runway and terminal was constructed in 2003.
 The second runway opened on 2 August 2007 after a $8 billion expense.
 Airport size expanded to 10.5 km2.
 A new terminal building opened in late 2012.
 Additional plans for a third runway with a length of 3,500 m (11,483 ft.), a new
cargo terminal and expanding the airport size to 13 km2 were postponed for
economic reasons.

14. Terminal 1
 The main KIX passenger Terminal l
is a single four-story building
 It has a gross floor space of 296,043
square meters.
 It is the longest airport terminal in
the world, at a total length of 1.7 km.
 The terminal's roof is shaped like
an airfoil to promote air circulation
through the building.

15. Terminal 2
 Terminal 2 is a low-cost carrier
(LCC) terminal designed to attract
more LCCs by providing lower
landing fees than terminal 1.
 Currently this terminal is not
directly accessible by train. A free
shuttle bus transports passengers
from Kansai International Airport's
train station to Terminal.

16. Flights
• Weekly International
Passenger Flights : 710
• Weekly International
Freighter Flights : 152
• Weekly Domestic
Flights : 495

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18. References
• The official website of KIA http://www.kansai-airport.or.jp/en/index.asp
• Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_International_Airport#cite_note-Nikko-4
• Wiki Travel http://wikitravel.org/en/Kansai_International_Airport
• YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffhkko4i4Uc

19. THANK YOU
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