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Narita International Airport Email Newsletter
NARITA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Issue No.107, 30/9/2020
Greetings from the Narita Airport email newsletter editorial office.
The changing weather bringing torrential rain continues. I hope everyone is safe and well. It seems that whenever I don't have my umbrella with me, the skies open up. But . . . . I do have some uplifting news in this edition of our email newsletter so keep on reading down to the end.
Topics
Special feature
Opening of New Ramp Central Tower. Vote of Thanks to the Old Tower!!
Spotlight
Narita Airport Notebook 2021 is now on sale!
What's new
Important: Notice Concerning COVID-19
Narita Airport Initiatives to prevent infection and your cooperation is appreciated.
Press releases
Monthly Traffic Statistics (August 2020)
Special feature
Opening of New Ramp Central Tower. Vote of Thanks to the Old Tower!!
[ From our Readers ]
"The new Ramp Central Tower began operating today, right? With so few flights operating due to COVID-19, it would have been great to celebrate the launch with a lot more aircraft. It is sad to see the old tower go but Narita will continue to be safe, especially with the new tower."

As the reader mentioned in their message, our new Ramp Central Tower opened on September 10. Following this, I snuck into the old tower which has supported Narita International Airport for more than 40 years since it first opened in 1978. Let's take a peek inside!
The Old Tower
Perhaps some of our readers would like to know about the old tower.
It has 16 floors and stands approximately 64 meters high. As you can guess, when I say the "old" tower, it was originally the place where air traffic and ramp traffic controllers worked. Air traffic control was on the 16th floor and ramp control was on the 13th floor. However, a "new" control tower was built beside the old tower and became operational in 1993. The air traffic controllers moved into the new tower and ramp controllers moved from the 13th floor to the 16th floor of the old tower and that was assigned solely to ramp control duties.
By the way, this ramp control duty is carried out only at Narita Airport in Japan!
Front:Old Control Tower/Back:New Control Tower
What do Ramp Controllers Do?
Let's briefly explain the role of ramp controllers who are inextricably linked to the old tower. You've probably heard of air traffic controllers but never heard of ramp controllers.
Actually, the ramp controller is an employee of Narita International Airport Corporation. Since the air traffic controller is a national civil servant, one of the major differences is that one is an employee of a private company and the other is an employee of the country.

Next, the differences regarding duties are as follows. When an aircraft is departing, the route that it takes from its parking bay through the taxiway to the runway and actual take off is divided into several areas. Each area falls under the jurisdiction of either air traffic control or ramp control.

Air traffic control issues permission to depart to waiting aircraft and gives instructions to aircraft on taxiways and runways. Once an aircraft has received permission from air traffic control to depart, ramp control gives it permission to push back (connecting a special vehicle to aircraft and pushing it backwards) from the parking bay, assigns parking bays to aircraft which are called "stands", and marshals the aircraft as it taxis in the apron area. Thus, the handover from the air traffic controller to the ramp controller or the ramp controller to the air traffic controller enables aircraft to operate without any problems.
What's it Like Inside the Old Tower?
I visited the 16th floor which was actually in use until just the other day!
Inside, there are lots of monitors and I had a great view of the parked aircraft from the large windows that surround the entire 16th floor. The equipment was still working when I was there and I could hear constant English radio communication between air traffic control, ramp control and the pilots.
Looking closely at the equipment, I could see that it was possible to monitor not only ramp control frequencies but also those for the relevant air traffic control. Radio is used to instruct aircraft, but each of the several areas mentioned above uses a different frequency, so controllers monitor several frequencies in order to keep track of the status of other aircraft that are not under their control. It seems that monitoring these frequencies is very important. I thought that was pretty cool!
Also, the old tower has 16 floors, but the new ramp tower has 5. While that might not seem very high, the tower itself is around 60 meters so it is almost the same as the old tower. Like the old tower, I hope it continues to watch over Narita Airport for many years to come. New ramp tower viewed from the old tower
Spotlight
Narita Airport Notebook 2021 is now on sale!
The Narita Airport Notebook was extremely popular last year. Therefore, more have been printed this year and were released for sale on 22 September with two new designs.
The Narita Airport Notebook is produced with the assistance and cooperation of volunteers who support Narita Airport and the surrounding area. It contains a variety of content including information on travel and Narita Airport, and information on communicating with foreigners as well as small anecdotes.
Why not pick up Japan's first airport notebook.


Available in red, blue, black, orange and brown.

<Size>
Approx. 16 X 8 inches.

<Type>
1-week open spread commencing on January 2021 and containing around 250 pages.

<News>
Notebook benefits now available at many more stores! As well as the usual trivia unique to the notebook, there are also some humorous poems from subscribers.

<Price>
JPY1,000 (tax included) *Plus shipping for mail order purchases.
<Available from>
*Amazon
*Miraiya Shoten Narita (AEON Mall Narita)
*BonBelta Narita
*Museum Shop, Museum of Aeronautical Sciences
*Narita Tourist Pavilion
*Yoridokoro Tourist Information Center in front of Yokoshiba Station
*Shops in Narita International Airport (Family Mart Narita Airport Station,
  Airport Terminal 2 Station, Jetstar shop), etc.

> Details (Japanese)
New ramp tower viewed from the old tower
<Launch of the Narita Airport Notebook 2020 on 21 September>

What's new
Important: Notice Concerning COVID-19
The Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and other government agencies are working in conjunction with airport companies to detect and stop the spread of the virus at Narita Airport.
When coming to the airport, please observe and cooperate with the following.

*Details
Narita Airport Initiatives to prevent infection and your cooperation is appreciated.
Initiatives at the airport to prevent COVID-19 infection and requested cooperation from customers. We ask that customers check the details before using the airport and lend their support and cooperation in preventing infection.

*Details
Press releases
24/9/2020 Monthly Traffic Statistics (August 2020) (PDF:594KB)
> NAA Press release
Note from the editor
I hope you enjoyed the feature on the old control tower. There is actually a catwalk on the outside of the 12th floor and I was allowed to walk around on that. I am fine with heights so I really enjoyed the scenery as I walked around the outside of the tower.
I will have some bright topics on Narita Airport next month as well. Stay Tuned!
Published by:Narita International Airport Corporation

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