Nearly one year after opening, Central Japan International Airport outside Nagoya is struggling to attract more passengers.

The number of domestic passengers using Japan's third major international gateway, which opened last Feb. 17 in time for the start of the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture, initially posted growth from the prior year's figures from the old Nagoya airport.

But that stopped with the end of the six-month world's fair in late September, and in October the airport began registering year-on-year declines, Yukihisa Hirano, president of Central Japan International Airport Co., told reporters last week in Tokyo.