Osaka International Airport (大阪国際空港, Ōsaka Kokusai Kūkō?) (IATA: ITM, ICAO: RJOO) is the primary domestic airport for the Kansai region of Japan, including the major cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. It is classified as a first class airport.
The airport is often called Itami Airport (伊丹空港, Itami Kūkō?) because most of its land is located in Itami, Hyōgo Prefecture. The terminal complex is located in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, and the only access from the Itami side is via a long tunnel that passes below the runway and apron.
Despite its “international” designation, the airport’s scheduled air traffic is entirely domestic. Kansai International Airport (27mi away) took over Osaka’s international traffic in 1994 and competes with Itami for domestic traffic. Itami also faces competition from Kobe Airport (16mi away), a smaller domestic airport opened in 2006, nevertheless in FY2006 it was Japan’s 5th busiest airport and Kansai region’s busiest.
During 2005, this airport had 66,259 aircraft movements (32 cities). The total number of passengers was 18,948,300. Freight volume was at 154,412 tonnes total.
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport  (airfield); Osaka International Airport Terminal Co., Ltd. (terminal)
Serves Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe
Location Osaka, Japan
Elevation AMSL 49 ft / 15 m
Coordinates 34°47′8″N 135°26′18″E / 34.78556°N 135.43833°E / 34.78556; 135.43833
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
14R/32L 9,840 2,999 Concrete
14L/32R 5,997 1,828 Paved
History
Itami Airport opened as the No. 2 Osaka Airport (第二大阪飛行場, Dai-ni Ōsaka Hikōjō?) in 1939. Prior to the opening of Itami, Osaka was served by seaplanes which used an airport at the mouth of the Kizu River. In 1931, the Osaka municipal government drafted plans to construct a new “No. 1 Osaka Airport” near the mouth of the Yamato River, also targeted at seaplanes, but concerns about fog and protests from Kobe-based businesses led the government to build the “No. 2 Airport” for land-based aircraft instead. The new airport was primarily used by the Imperial Japanese Army during its early years.
U.S. occupation forces took over Osaka Airport after the end of World War II in 1945, renaming it Itami Air Base. In 1954, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio stopped at Itami during their honeymoon, and in 1956, the base was used in the filming of the movie Sayonara.
Itami was renamed Osaka Airport (大阪空港, Ōsaka Kūkō?) following its return to Japanese control in 1958, and officially became an international airport in 1959. In its heyday Itami was served by a variety of major international carriers, including Pan Am, United, British Airways, Air India, Cathay Pacific and Korean Air. Northwest Airlines briefly operated a New York-Itami-Sydney route in the early 1990s, which raised Japanese protest because less than 30% of passengers on the Australia-Japan segment were originating in the U.S.

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