Hovercraft, which connected Oita City and Oita Airport (Kunisaki City, Oita Prefecture) and ended operations in Heisei 22/10, will be revived within this fiscal year. A hovercraft is an amphibious vehicle that uses a propeller to eject air onto the surface of the water and land, floats the hull, and runs at high speed.
At that time, hovercraft began operating in Showa 46, when the airport was moved from Oita City to Kunisaki Town (now Kunisaki City). At its peak in Heisei 2, it was used by about 440,000 people, but after Heisei 15, it decreased to around 300,000, and the number of passengers decreased due to the overlapping global economic recession. In addition to that, when Oita Airport was connected to the Oita Expressway in 2002, it became possible to travel from Oita City by land (bus) in about 1 hour, so the superiority of hovercrafts declined. Also, since operations ended in Heisei 21, domestic hovercraft were abandoned.
After that, due to ① the inbound effects up to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of airport users exceeded 2 million people per year, and ② there were calls for improved access when compared to other major domestic airports, mainly business customers, etc., so momentum increased for reviewing maritime traffic. Therefore, the prefecture began examining maritime traffic as a new means of transportation to the airport, and after comparing hovercrafts and high-speed boats, it was decided to revive hovercrafts that do not require the development of new port facilities and can use existing facilities from the viewpoint of the period and cost required for introduction.
An upper and lower separation system is adopted as the form of operation. This is a method where the prefecture buys and lends ships, develops departure and arrival points, and the operating operator bears labor costs, fuel costs, ship repair costs, etc. associated with operation. The flight distance is about 30 km, and the travel time is scheduled to be about 30 minutes. What is different from before is that Mitsui Shipbuilding has already withdrawn from manufacturing, and since there are no companies that manufacture hovercrafts in Japan, 3 ships will be purchased from British shipbuilders. The operating operator has been selected as Daiichi Kotsu Sangyo.
As a result, airport users can expect a reduction in time to the airport, and the number of transportation options will increase, and the enjoyment of traveling will expand. Also, regular hovercraft routes are extremely rare in the world, and it is said that the only one connecting mainland England and the Isle of Wight is the only one in the world. Therefore, I am excited to be able to expect the economic effects of people who want to ride unusual means of transportation coming from Japan and abroad to the prefecture and interaction with those people.
Reprinted from “Weekly Building Management” by Building Management Institute Co., Ltd. (with permission)
