茨城(いばらき)機場的建設雖然不少日本媒體認為有是一件為討好地方選民，亂花錢的建設，但是從Tabuchi 的文章看來，這種針對廉價航空公司，致力於節遵成本，在講究服務的日本社會裡的確是大不敬，但就行銷而言，如此作為的確有效的區隔出一個市場。
從背包客或是撘乘廉價航空班機的乘客身上就賺不到錢嗎？或許從新思考觀光旅遊，會發現有更多不同的市場區隔。前幾年流行的「微利經濟」近來已經很少聽到了，或許是因為房地產價格屢創新高，或許經濟的新聞焦點是ECFA，上海世博商機...etc. 畢竟「微利經濟」這樣的思想也會有一定的市場。對於觀光建設相對匱乏的茨城(いばらき)，要滿足背包客或是想從事體驗旅遊的觀光客的建設，門檻也較低。
高鐵開通後，國內線的班機大都賠錢，大多數的乘客改搭高鐵；事實上，這種情形也發生在西班牙，自從Alta Velocidad Española (AVE)通車後，利用空運了旅客也減少了一半以上，至於AVE是否賠錢就不清楚了，而這些航班大多數為廉價航空公司所經營。台灣機場大部分的時間都是空轉，沒有乘客也沒有飛機起降，難道所有的機場經營者都是等著兩岸的商機，不去思考如何拓展市場嗎？
十月起，台北松山機場將與東京的羽田機場對飛，算得上有些進步。那其他的民用航空站呢？臺中清泉崗、嘉義、臺南、屏東、花蓮、臺東這幾作機場的利用率高嗎？橋本昌(はしもと まさる)對茨城空港的策略性思維值得借鏡。
If I have plenty of time, I wish to keep this blog in Chinese rather than in English, after all I am not able to command English freely. Besides, if the article cited was an English one, like this one, I could easily make a scene here for wirting in English.
I am a fan of Ms. Tabuchi, especially for those stories she wrote about Japanese society.
The way Mr. Hashimoto instructed about the making of Ibaraki Airport, which I felt very impressive, and hopefully, he could make it and bring some benefit to his people there in Ibaraki. Service might be considered as value-added, but so often it's the synonym of cost-added. To many travelers, traveling is about to experience the different lives and culture rather than enjoy amenities. From view point of marketing, Mr. Hashimoto employed a strategy to creat a new segment for travelers, which no one else provides in Japan so far, that is a good competitive advantage.
March 10, 2010
In Japan, No-Frills Airport Lures Bargain Players
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Kyodo News, via Associated Press
For now, Ibaraki Airport will offer just two flightsa day: one to Seoul, South Korea, and one to Kobe, a port city inwestern Japan.
MITO, Japan — The sweeping order from the governor was the kind that gives Japanese bureaucrats heart attacks: plans for a three-story airport terminal, painstakingly laid over years, were to be scrapped and replaced with a single-floor layout.
Amenities would be pared to a minimum. Jetways for boarding would be eliminated; passengers would board planes from the tarmac and perhaps even handle their own check-in luggage. All the ideas were so blasphemous in service-conscious Japan that one local official said his “mind went blank” when he heard of the plan.
Ibaraki 茨城(いばらき)Airport, about 53 miles north of Tokyo, opens on Thursday and is intended to be a completely new type of Japanese airport: a no-frills facility that could finally open up Japan’s expensive capital city to low-budget airlines.
Ignored by Japan’s big-league carriers, the little airport is going against all odds. It is the 98th airport in a country with a landmass smaller than California’s. Ibaraki Prefecture is devoid of tourist attractions, except for an ancient garden, known for its plum blossoms, and famous purveyors of natto, or pungent, fermented soy beans.
For now, Ibaraki will offer just two flights a day: one to Seoul by the South Korean carrier Asiana Airlines, and another to Kobe, a medium-size port city in western Japan, by the Japanese budget carrier SkyMark Airlines.
Even Japan’s transportation minister, Seiji Maehara, has been hard-pressed to muster much enthusiasm for the airport’s opening, despite its roughly 22 billion yen ($243 million) from local and national coffers. The news media have painted Ibaraki as just another money-losing airport, an example of the useless public works projects that dot Japan’s countryside.
“I’m not about to beg airlines from Japan and elsewhere to fly to Ibaraki,” Mr. Maehara said last week. “The prefecture needs to do what it can to make use of the airport.”
A closer look at Ibaraki, however, reveals a strategy that could jolt Japan’s long-stagnant aviation sector.
Travel experts say low-cost air services have the potential for growth, especially as incomes rise in big countries like China and India, bringing air travel to more people. Budget carriers have sprung up across the Asia-Pacific region. But Japan’s airline industry has been dominated by Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airlines and plagued by expensive and inefficient airports.
The greater Tokyo area in particular could use another airport to handle flights by low-cost carriers, much like the Stansted or Luton airports outside of London. The city and its surroundings represent the largest metropolitan sprawl in the world with a population of 40 million. It is currently served by two airports, Narita — which handles most of the international traffic — and Haneda, which primarily serves domestic flights. Haneda, however, is gaining interest from international carriers because of bilateral agreements that are opening up more slots for overseas flights.
But capacity is notoriously tight, and that is expected to continue even after expansions at both airports in the next year. Strict regulations have stifled the flexible allocation of flights. Moreover, high landing and other costs put Narita and Haneda beyond the reach of low-cost carriers.
“Ibaraki is definitely on the right track,” said Ushio Chujo, a professor of transportation economics at Keio University in Tokyo.
"The airport's success would hinge on whether more low-cost carriers will start up in Japan and in neighboring countries," he said. "That could take 5 to 10 years, so Ibaraki will have to prepare for the long haul."
In 2007, long after blueprints for an impressive terminal building at Ibaraki Airport were drawn up, and contractors hired, Ibaraki Prefecture’s governor, Masaru Hashimoto橋本昌(はしもと まさる), called for building “an airport Japan had never seen before.”
"Just another standard airport wasn't going to work. We'd be behind the times as soon as we opened," Mr. Hashimoto said in an interview. "We needed to turn our thinking upside down."
Mr. Hashimoto ordered a redesign of the terminal from scratch. He scrapped a plan to place arrivals, departures and a viewing deck on separate floors, instead putting everything on one level.
Mr. Hashimoto eliminated boarding bridges, which are expensive for carriers to use and for airports to maintain. Passengers instead will board from the tarmac. (“People will love it — they can pose for photos in front of the plane,” he said.)
He also wants passengers to carry their own check-in luggage to the plane, in a setup similar to some regional American airports — though he is still negotiating with officials on the point.
Planes landing at Ibaraki will taxi and park in a way that does not require the help of a tractor to push them back onto the runway before taking off — another reason passengers will board from the tarmac. That move, the first for an international airport in Japan, saves tractor use fees for airlines and slashes maintenance costs for Ibaraki.
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg News
Members of Japan’s military at Ibaraki Airport,where passengers will board from the tarmac and airlines will savemoney on fees.
When officials protested that Japan’s finicky passengers would complain about the rain, Mr. Hashimoto and his aides offered this plan: give out free umbrellas on rainy days. (The Japanese love freebies, he said.) The governor is also pushing to accept private jets, as well as a helicopter link with downtown Tokyo, and is renting out extra space for parties and conventions.
Those efforts have paid off: Landing fees for a Boeing 737 on a scheduled flight at Ibaraki are about 89,000 yen ($982), two-thirds of Narita’s 139,600 yen fee ($1,540) and less than half of the 189,600 yen ($2,092) at Haneda, according to the industry publication Orient Aviation.
Other factors may work in Ibaraki's favor: Its finances are not as dire as many of Japan's other airports, in part because it was built as an extension of a military air base. And foreign carriers can serve regional airports without the bilateral agreements necessary for access to Haneda and Narita, making it easier to add routes. Asiana has had difficulty adding to the six routes it flies from Seoul to Narita and Haneda, for example.
Ibaraki offers unlimited free parking, while parking costs at Narita and Haneda are sky-high, and also plans to offer bus service from central Tokyo for 500 yen, or less than $5 - a fraction of the cost it takes to travel to Narita, and comparable to the cost of reaching Haneda.
Accounting for the time it takes for the plane to taxi on Narita's runway and the passenger to make his way through that sprawling airport, the total journey to central Tokyo from Ibaraki is about the same - less than 90 minutes - according to Katsuichi Yabunaka, an Ibaraki official.
Meanwhile, the airport serves a big market in its own right: about 20 million people live within 100 kilometers of the new airport, according to Ibaraki Prefecture.
The airport faces plenty of headwinds. Haneda and Narita are planning extensions. Japan's economy remains depressed. Foreign arrivals in Japan are also on the decline, though the trend could change with better access, particularly by budget carriers, experts say.
The airport is expected to lose 20 million yen ($221,000) in its first year of operation.
Still, Ibaraki is going on a sales offensive. The airport is in discussions with low-cost carriers in China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Macao. Asiana, meanwhile, is studying an additional route to the South Korean port city of Busan.
“Ibaraki is the first airport in Japan to break the mold by really focusing on cost and efficiency,” said Dongshil Hyun, executive vice president at Asiana and head of the airline’s Japan operations.
“We finally have a much-needed new route to Tokyo,” he said. “How could we not be excited?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/business/global/11airport.html
顯示文章地圖
文章定位：
