Hisane Masaki | Sep 26, 2011 8:32AM EDT
Japan’s Sendai Airport restarted regular international flights on Sunday, more than six months after the devastating tsunami submerged the airport’s runways in March.
Asiana Airlines was the first international airline to begin service, and Continental Airlines is expected to follow the South Korean airline by restarting service to Guam on Oct. 2. The Sendai-Taipei route will reopen on Oct. 25, and the Sendai-Beijing route will restart in March.
Regular domestic flights to and from the Tohoku region’s largest airport restarted July 25, and international charter service resumed in July.
“Sendai Airport has arisen like a phoenix,” Takeshi Maeda, the Japanese transport minister, said at a Sunday ceremony marking the full restoration of the airport.
Miyagi Governor Yoshihiro Murai said the resumption of international trade will contribute to rebuilding the Tohoku region. The airport handled 13,901 tons of cargo — 12,462 tons on domestic flights and 1,439 tons on international flights — in fiscal 2009, which ended March 2010.
Misaki Contact Hisane Masaki at yiu45535@nifty.com.
