TOKYO – The Kansai International Airport in western Japan reopened partially on Friday, 10 days after the terminal and runway were badly damaged by the nation’s most powerful typhoon in 25 years.
Terminal 1 of Japan’s third busiest airport restarted operations with around 25 percent international flights and 45 percent domestic ones, a spokesperson for the airport told EFE.
Early morning on Friday, passengers were seen boarding their flights in the terminal, where 115 flights were scheduled to land and take-off throughout the day.
The airport authorities hoped that the terminal would be fully operational by next week.
The reopening of Terminal 1 follows that of another terminal, which is already functioning at 100 percent of its capacity, the spokesperson added.
Terminal 1’s ground floor and the nearest runway were completely flooded by typhoon Jebi, which had crashed into western Japan on Sept. 4, leaving 11 dead and hundreds injured.
Flooding at the airport, located on an artificial island on Osaka Bay, had also stranded 7,800 people overnight in the upper floors of the terminal.
A train service between the airport and neighboring cities was likely to resume next week after work to repair a damaged bridge had concluded on Friday, public broadcaster NHK reported.
The train service was suspended after a tanker had crashed into the bridge owing to heavy storms caused by Jebi.
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