JAL, Real Estate Firm Hulic to Develop Intl Logistics Hub near Narita Airport; Completion Aimed Before New Runway

Yomiuri Shimbun

11 hours ago

Japan Airlines and major real estate company Hulic Co. have announced they will build and jointly operate an international logistics hub about 10 kilometers away from Narita Airport that contains an air cargo handling facility and a logistics center.
Construction has begun at the airport to build a new 3,500-meter runway and extend the currently 2,500-meter-long Runway B by 1,000 meters. JAL and Tokyo-based Hulic aim to have its hub operating by the time the runway construction is scheduled for completion in March 2029.
This international logistics hub will be Narita Airport's first outside its premises and is expected to streamline cargo handling operations.
The hub, to be called Wing NRT, will have a bonded warehouse — a secure area where imported and exported cargo and other items will be temporarily stored — as well as a logistics center and a common-use building for employees. The hub's four or five buildings are planned to have a combined floor space of about 420,000 square meters.
The bonded warehouse itself will have four aboveground floors and a total floor space of about 150,000 square meters.
Wing NRT will be equipped with cutting-edge freight-handling equipment and other features, including a temperature-controlled warehouse exclusively for pharmaceuticals and high-performance freezers and refrigerators capable of storing fresh food.
The facility will be constructed in the Shimofukuda district of Narita City, Chiba Prefecture, about 10 kilometers from Narita Airport as the crow flies. Transport of cargo between the airport and the hub is expected to take about 10 minutes in March 2029, when the extension to the Kita-Chiba Road, construction of which is underway between Ichikawa and Narita cities, is completed.
Total costs are projected to exceed ¥100 billion. After land improvement work is completed, construction is scheduled to start in April 2027.
JAL currently has six cargo facilities with a combined floor space of about 85,000 square meters within Narita Airport. Some of these facilities were built when the airport opened in 1978 and are increasingly showing signs of wear and tear. They are also located apart from each other, which has made operating them efficiently difficult in some cases.
'This will be the first international logistics hub in Japan that has an air cargo handling facility adjacent to a logistics center,' said Hidehiko Umehara at JAL's cargo and mail department. 'This will significantly speed up our cargo handling and improve the quality of our shipping operations. We want this logistics complex to improve the international competitiveness of Narita Airport.'
Through solar panels to be installed on its roofs and other means, the hub will operate using renewable energy.
Hulic Senior Executive Managing Officer Miki Kurobe said, 'A large park and other facilities will be built on the grounds of the hub, which we hope will become a vital resource for handling any disaster that strikes the region.'