Japan plans to establish a system allowing the central government to promptly repair locally managed airports damaged by disasters, in place of local governments.

The system, expected to cover about 60 airports, is based on lessons from the delayed resumption of an airport on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, which was struck by a powerful earthquake on Jan. 1, 2024.

The transport ministry plans to introduce a revision to the airport law to create the system during the current session of parliament, which ends in June, informed sources said.

Noto Airport in Wajima, an area severely damaged by the quake, reopened for commercial flights on Jan. 27, 2024, after emergency repairs by the prefectural government.

Under the law for recovery from large-scale disasters, Japan has a system allowing the central government to repair locally managed airports on behalf of local governments if disasters that damaged them are officially designated as extraordinary.

But it was only a month after the earthquake that the central government was able to start full-fledged repairs of Noto Airport under that system.

The new system would allow the central government to repair disaster-affected airports before or without such a disaster designation if requested by local governments, helping early reopenings.

The ministry will also strengthen aircraft safety measures, following a collision of planes on a runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport in January last year.

Airport managers will be obliged to take measures to prevent planes from entering runways by mistake and will be subject to regular inspections by the central government. All pilots will be asked to receive training on communication between pilots.

The measures will be included in a bill to revise the civil aeronautics law to be submitted to parliament.