KKJRJFR

Kitakyushu Airport

Kitakyushu, Japan · Asia

Asia Asia/Tokyo

6direct destinations

6airlines

1runway

2,500 mLongest runway

2006opened

Kitakyushu Airport (Japanese: ?????, Hepburn: Kitaky?sh?-k?k?) (IATA: KKJ, ICAO: RJFR), sometimes called Kokuraminami Airport, is an airport in Kokuraminami-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is built on an artificial island in the western Seto Inland Sea, 3 km (1.9 mi) away from the city's downtown. It opened on 16 March 2006, as New Kitakyushu Airport (??????, Shin-kitaky?sh?-k?k?) but was renamed in 2008. It has some international charter flights. It is one of the six airports in Japan to operate 24 hours a day, alongside Haneda Airport (Tokyo), Naha Airport (Naha), New Chitose Airport (Sapporo), Kansai International Airport (Osaka), and Chubu Centrair International Airport (Nagoya).

Location

33.846°N, 131.035°E · 6 m s. n. m. (21 ft)

General data

CountryJapan

CityKitakyushu

IATA codeKKJ

ICAO codeRJFR

Coordinates33.846°N, 131.035°E

Elevation6 m s. n. m. (21 ft)

Time zoneAsia/Tokyo

Runways1

Longest runway2,500 m

OperatorMinisterio de Tierra, Infraestructura, Transporte y Turismo de Japón

Opened2006

Direct destinations6

Official website

Runways · 1

18/36

Length2,500 m8,202 ft

Width60 m197 ft

SurfaceAsphalt

Lighted✓

Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.

Radio frequencies · 1

Flight information

118.850

Look for a live feed on LiveATC External site; not every airport has a feed.

Reference frequencies for enthusiasts, from OurAirports (community database, public domain), checked on Oct 16, 2026. They may be outdated or incomplete and do not replace the AIP or current charts: not for navigation. In Europe the published frequency may be an 8.33 kHz channel (e.g., 118.505 for 118.500). In MHz.

History

The former airport also known as Kokura Airport had restrictions on aircraft operation due to its small size and location, close to mountains and residential areas. Heavy fog often resulted in flight cancellations. There were similar problems at the nearby Fukuoka Airport, which cannot operate 24 hours due to proximity to residential areas.

A new airport was intended to be free from such problems due to its offshore location, making possible 24-hour operation unlike these 2 airports. Large cargo planes can use the airport, making possible convenient freight movement to and from nearby industrial zones. Toyota has a factory just across the bay from the airport.

Construction

A committee to promote the construction of the new airport was founded in 1978, with the governor of Fukuoka as chairman. Construction began in October 1994.

The new airport was anticipated by residents in and around the cities of Kitakyushu and Shimonoseki. The Kitakyushu municipal government organized bus tours to the construction site for interested citizens in an attempt to defuse controversy over the construction. The airport officially opened on March 16, 2006.

Flights

The first aircraft to land at the airport was a StarFlyer Airbus on March 16, 2006. The first international flight from Shanghai landed on March 30, 2006. A Korean low-cost carrier, Jeju Air, flew eight charter flights from Kitakyushu to Incheon International Airport in summer 2008. Scheduled service on the route started in March 2009.

Airlines operating here · 6

Other airlines with direct routes

StarFlyer Aero K China Airlines China Eastern Airlines Japan Airlines Jin Air

Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).

Photo: Hiroshi Nakai · CC BY 2.0 · view original

Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

See all airports Search “Kitakyushu”

Cite

To cite this page in academic work, an article or Wikipedia, choose the style and copy the reference. The access date is today.

This page was last updated on October 15, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Kitakyushu Airport (KKJ). Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KKJ

MLA

“Kitakyushu Airport (KKJ).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KKJ. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Kitakyushu Airport (KKJ).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KKJ.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Kitakyushu Airport (KKJ). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KKJ (Accessed: 17 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_kkj,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Kitakyushu Airport (KKJ)}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-15},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KKJ},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KKJ}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-17},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/KKJ |title=Kitakyushu Airport (KKJ) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}