On January 15, 2024, China Southern Airlines resumed weekly flights between Harbin and Niigata. With that, Niigata Airport’s international network is back to what it was before the pandemic.
Continue reading to learn more.
China Southern Airlines’ Recently Resumed Harbin – Niigata Route
On January 15, 2024, China Southern Airlines resumed flights between Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost province, and Niigata, the second largest city in Japan’s Chubu region. The resumption comes after a roughly four-year hiatus due to the pandemic.
The Harbin – Niigata route currently operates once a week with the following schedule (albeit the exact departure and arrival times will vary slightly later on in the year depending on the season):
- CZ615 / Harbin – Niigata / 8:05AM – 11:30AM / Mon
- CZ616 / Niigata – Harbin / 12:30PM – 2:00PM / Mon
China Southern deploys its A320-200 on the roughly two-hour route. The aircraft are equipped with 8 recliner seats business class seats in a 2-2 layout and 120 economy class seats in a 3-3 layout for a total capacity of 152 passengers.
Niigata’s International Fully Rebuilt (& Then Some)
With Japan’s strict border measures during the pandemic, even many international flights to Tokyo operated with just a dozen or two dozen, or even less than that, passengers onboard. As such, unsurprisingly, smaller regional Japanese airports with only a handful of international flights to begin with became disconnected from the world.
For about three years starting at the beginning of 2020, Niigata Airport was in such a situation. Now, the airport’s international network is more extensive than it was before the pandemic.
On January 17, 2023, Tigerair launched scheduled flights to the airport from Taipei, bringing international service back to Niigata. The launch of the route was originally planned to happen in 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic.
The Taipei – Niigata flights continue to operate twice a week with the following schedule (using the A320):
- IT228 / Taipei Taoyuan – Niigata / 2:35PM – 6:40PM / Mon, Fri
- IT229 / Niigata – Taipei Taoyuan / 7:40PM – 10:40PM / Mon, Fri
On August 26, 2023, thanks to China Eastern Airlines adding flights from Shanghai Pudong, Niigata Airport got its second post-pandemic international route and the first one that was a resumption rather than a launch.
The Shanghai – Niigata route is operated twice a week with the following schedule (using the A319):
- MU295 / Shanghai Pudong – Niigata / 9:30AM – 1:10PM / Tue, Sat
- MU296 / Niigata – Shanghai Pudong / 2:00PM – 4:30PM / Tue, Sat
The other international route that Niigata Airport had pre-pandemic was Korean Air’s connection from Seoul Incheon. These flights resumed on October 31, 2023, just a couple of days after the airline resumed flights to two other regional airports in Japan – Kagoshima and Okayama.
Korean Air’s route from Seoul Incheon is Niigata’s highest-capacity international route and operates three times a week with the following schedule:
- KE763 / Seoul Incheon – Niigata / 10:05AM – 12:00PM / Tue, Thu, Sat
- KE764 / Niigata – Seoul Incheon / 1:10PM – 3:45PM / Tue, Thu, Sat
As mentioned above, yesterday, China Southern completed the trio of pre-pandemic international routes to Niigata.
Interestingly, until 2010, Niigata Airport also had scheduled service to Russia’s Far East, including to Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. In fact, back when it first launched in 1973, the Khabarovsk – Niigata route was the first route between the USSR and Japan not involving Moscow or Tokyo.
Summary
China Southern Airlines relaunched flights between Harbin and Niigata on January 15, 2024. The route is Niigata Airport’s fourth international one. It is also the last of the three international routes the airport had before the pandemic to resume.
With that, Niigata Airport has non-stop flights to Seoul (Korean Air), Shanghai (China Eastern), Harbin (China Southern), and Taipei (Tigerair). The last of those routes was newly launched after the pandemic and was the first post-pandemic international route to the city.
