Tarama Airport

Airport Profile

The construction of Tarama Airport as an emergency airport was funded by USCAR (the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Island) in March 1971.
The runway was expanded to 800m to comply with the Aviation law, which became applicable along with Okinawa’s reversion to Japanese administration in 1972, and 19-seat DHC-6 aircraft began operating to Miyako and Ishigaki islands.

The airport, however, was not able to keep up with passenger demand and frequent bad weather resulted in many flights being cancelled. This was inconvenient for local residents and damaged local promotion. Residents called for larger aircraft and an extended runway. In 2001, the aged DHC-6 aircraft were replaced with 9-seat BN-2B aircraft and this resulted in the worse situation due to the small size.

In order to work towards the future expansion of transportation with the improved flight stability and comfort of larger aircraft, construction of a new airport with a 1,500m-long runway to replace the old 800m-long runway airport started in 1999 and began operating from the 10th of October 2003.

Specifics of the Airport

Item	Description
Classification	Local airport
Administrative body	Government of Okinawa prefecture
Location	Miyako-gun,Tarama-son,Okinawa Prefecture
Reference point	24⁰38'13.7"N, 124⁰40'31.6"E
Elevation	10.3m
Site area	348,737m²
Runway strip	length:1,620m width:150m Class D
Runway	length:1,500m width:45m LA4
Taxiway	length:77.5m width:18m
Apron	7,700m², 2berths for STOL aircraft
Lighting facilities	PAPI and RWYTIL
Aeronautical aid facilities	VOR/DME
Servicehours	08:00through18:00(10hours)

History

1971/ 3	Constructed as an emergency landing airfield
1971/12/ 2	Operation of civil aviation started.
1972/11/14	Notice for current status report on the Tarama airfield was issued(runway 780m)
1973/ 1/25	Permission for the establishment of Tarama Airport was granted (runway 800m, body of establishment: Government of Okinawa Prefecture)
1973/ 2/27	Appointed as Third class airport by the Cabinet Ordinance
1974/ 7/26	Commercial services commenced (runway 800m)
2003/10/10	Commercial services commenced (runway 1,500m)
2004/ 7/ 8	The new airport was renamed(from Shin Tarama Airport to Tarama Airport)
2008/ 6/18	Appointed as Local airport by the Cabinet Ordinance

Results