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Airport HistoryEst. 1994
Kansai International Airport was built almost entirely on a man-made island in Osaka Bay to escape the noise and land constraints of a mainland site, opening in 1994 as Japan's first 24-hour airport. Engineering challenges from unexpectedly severe ground subsidence and a catastrophic 2018 typhoon have made it as notable for its infrastructure history as for its passenger traffic.
Construction begins on an artificial island in Osaka Bay, requiring engineers to stabilize roughly 18 meters of water over 20 meters of soft clay using around a million sand drains.
Kansai International Airport opens on September 4, 1994, becoming Japan's first airport to operate 24 hours a day; Terminal 1 is designed by architect Renzo Piano.
The January 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake strikes roughly 20 kilometers away; the airport's engineered structures remain intact with no significant damage.
By 1999 the artificial island has subsided about 8.2 meters, nearly 50% more than the 5.7 meters engineers had originally predicted, requiring ongoing use of adjustable support columns beneath Terminal 1.
A second runway, built on a further land-reclamation extension, opens on August 2, 2007, expanding capacity for international traffic.
A dedicated low-cost-carrier Terminal 2 opens in late 2012, attracting budget airlines such as Peach Aviation.
On September 4, 2018, Typhoon Jebi sends a storm surge across the island, flooding runways and infrastructure; a tanker strikes the airport's only connecting bridge, stranding thousands of passengers. Operations partially resume by September 6 and fully by October 1, 2018.
Wikipedia and VINCI/ORIX press releases on the Kansai Airports concession. Subsidence figures (5.7m predicted vs. 8.2m by 1999) are the widely cited historical figures; more recent subsidence data was not verified in this research pass.