Tokyo Narita vs. Haneda: Which airport ought to I fly into?

Tokyo stays a perennial vacationer favourite, attracting a report 36.8 million worldwide guests in 2024. So it is smart that town has two airports serving each worldwide air site visitors and home journey.

Narita Worldwide Airport (NRT), in-built 1978, used to serve essentially the most long-haul flights of the 2 journey hubs, however that’s now not the case. Of the 2, Haneda Airport (HND) is now the busiest when it comes to passengers, dealing with in extra of 78 million passengers yearly, whereas Narita handles over 30 million every year.

Haneda’s worldwide terminal opened in 2010, and by 2023, it was one of many world’s busiest airports. Since 2020, various U.S. airways have added daytime flight service to and from Haneda. Carriers corresponding to All Nippon Airways and Japan Airways have additionally shifted most of their worldwide flight operations from Narita Worldwide to Haneda, the first cause for the shift being location.

However with loads of flight choices to every, deciding which of the 2 airports it’s best to fly into could be difficult. Fortunately, we have weighed up the options of each in an effort to take advantage of knowledgeable choice earlier than reserving your flight.

Distance to downtown and transportation choices

Tokyo is the world’s most populated metropolis, with over 37 million residents, and it covers roughly 800 sq. miles. Its sheer dimension makes defining a real metropolis middle troublesome. Tokyo has over 20 wards, every comprising a number of totally different districts.

For this put up, we are going to use the enduring Shibuya Crossing in downtown Tokyo as our reference level. It is generally known as the busiest avenue on the earth, the place as many as 2,500 folks at a time cross a single intersection at sure factors within the day.

Here is how the 2 airports stack up when it comes to journey time and the price of public transportation or taxi to this central level:

Getting downtown	NRT	HND
Distance (by automobile)	47 miles	13 miles
Time (by automobile)	1 hour and half-hour	40 minutes
Common taxi price	23,000 to 30,000 Japanese yen (roughly $150 to $200)	8,000 to 12,000 Japanese yen (roughly $50 to $78)
Public transit	Narita Skyliner Specific/Yamanote Line (2,630 Japanese yen/roughly $17)	Tokyo Monorail/Yamanote Line (690 Japanese yen/roughly $4.45)

Whereas ride-hailing apps like Uber and GO can be found in Tokyo, it is usually cheaper to hail a cab.

The map pictures under point out simply how a lot farther out of town the Narita complicated is than Haneda:

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NRT to Shibuya. GOOGLE MAPS

Driving in from NRT will take no less than 60 minutes, if not longer, relying on site visitors as you close to town. Whereas they aren’t arduous to seek out, bear in mind that cab rides in Japan are fairly costly. A visit from Narita to town will doubtless price you between $150 and $200 or extra. Public transit is less expensive by comparability, although the journey would require you to attach from the airport categorical line to Tokyo’s sprawling metro system to get to your closing vacation spot, which can be intimidating for some.

Haneda is way nearer by comparability. It is positioned on a peninsula simply south of town middle, about 8.7 miles south of Tokyo Station, town’s central practice station. Not solely will you acquire some spectacular views when your flight is arriving/departing, however additionally, you will be rewarded with a a lot shorter journey into town.

Driving to Shibuya Crossing will take between 30 and 45 minutes, relying on site visitors, although even a brief journey like this may end in a $100-plus taxi invoice. Public transit will get you there in the identical period of time for lower than $5.

Winner: Saving time whenever you journey for enterprise or pleasure ought to at all times be your aim, particularly when visiting a metropolis like Tokyo, the place you may by no means have sufficient time to do and see all the pieces you need. HND’s proximity to the center of town is why many vacationers select to fly out and in of that airport when visiting Tokyo.

Japan is the one nation with two Skytrax five-star airways, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airways, occupying spots of their high 10 carriers. Each function long- and short-haul flights out of NRT and HND — however each carriers are shifting extra of their long-haul operations to Haneda. Whereas NRT stays Japan’s largest airport, it companies fewer worldwide flights today, pivoting to deal with medium-haul routes from All Nippon, Japan Airways and different airways as an alternative.

In the meantime, service from Haneda to the U.S. has enormously expanded since 2019, as its nearer location to Tokyo has made it extra enticing to passengers. In response, the federal government has allotted extra slots for worldwide flights to fulfill demand. In 2023, HND noticed report highs in worldwide guests and flights.

American provider United Airways has enormously elevated its flight routes from Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX) and Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport (EWR) to HND within the final 5 years whereas decreasing the variety of flights it operates out of NRT. Delta Air Strains, in the meantime, closed down its NRT hub and shifted its complete Tokyo flight technique to HND.

As Haneda’s worldwide flight choices have elevated, so has the variety of airways that serve worldwide passengers there. However in lots of circumstances, even when a given airline does not fly to the airport you need, you will get there on a codeshare or alliance companion. For instance, Oneworld passengers flying between Japan and Sydney have two choices between Japan Airways and Qantas, each of which supply flights from HND and NRT.

Narita presents flights to 41 nations and 14 U.S. states; by comparability, Haneda, regardless of its pivot towards long-haul choices, has flights to simply 27 nations and 15 U.S. states. For vacationers to Tokyo coming from the U.S., although, this distinction might show considerably negligible.

Haneda’s clearest edge, for now, stays home flights inside Japan. As Tokyo’s most important home airport, Haneda presents flights to 50 locations throughout Japan.

Winner: Haneda now has the higher hand for journey to and from the U.S., given the shift in flight choices from carriers like Delta and United within the final 5 years. It additionally maintains an edge for journey inside Japan, as there are lots of extra choices to attach for flights to different elements of the nation. Nonetheless, Narita Worldwide nonetheless retains nice worth for its different choices of long-haul routes globally.

Haneda, in flip, has loads of its personal lounge choices and is residence to a Delta Sky Membership (opened in 2022) and the famed Cathay Pacific Lounge, amongst others. Later this 12 months, Haneda may also acquire an Amex Centurion Lounge.

For passengers who aren’t touring in a premium cabin, Narita may need the higher hand. The airport presents 5 Precedence Move lounges throughout its two terminals, whereas Haneda has none. Narita can also be considered one of solely 5 worldwide areas to host a United Membership lounge.

Each airports function a good quantity of procuring and eating choices and are typically among the many extra nice locations to spend a protracted layover. Narita has a bit extra of an enchantment for aviation geeks, as the scale and number of planes you may see make for some nice natural leisure. Some, like Thai’s Airbus A380, are particularly uncommon finds for U.S.-based vacationers.

Winner: Whereas premium-cabin passengers will not discover a lot distinction between the 2 airports when it comes to lounge entry, these touring in economic system shall be happier touring by way of Narita. Between Precedence Move lounges and a few nice planespotting, it makes for a extra pleasant layover.