DarkBlueScenery has recently released their rendition of Kansai International Airport (RJBB) for X-Plane 11 and 12, serving the Greater Osaka Area with a yearly average of 28 million passengers, making it the 3rd busiest in Japan.

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It opened in 1994 and was built to relieve overcrowding at Itami Airport, Osaka’s former main airport, with two large terminals designed by Renzo Piano. It’s the longest terminal in the world, with a length of 1.7km.

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Construction work started in 1987, and they had to build an artificial island with a sea wall, drainage system, and bridge to connect with the city. It eventually became the most expensive civil project in modern history, with a 15 billion dollar investment. The “growing pains” of creating an earthquake-proof artificial island paved the way for the New Kitakyushu Airport, Kobe Airport, Chubu Centrair International Airport, and even Hong Kong International Airport. 

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Its earthquake-proofness was tested just a year after its inauguration when Japan was struck by the Great Hanshin earthquake, whose epicenter was only 20 km from the airport. Yet, it didn’t sustain any damage at all. Four years later, its design was proven again when it survived a typhoon. 

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The fact it sits on an artificial piece of land has its downsides, though, with the total costs rising to 20 billion in the mid-2000s with all the maintenance work to stop it from sinking, which the engineers had predicted and expected.

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A new terminal building was inaugurated in 2012, further increasing its passenger handling capabilities.

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It’s a hub for All Nippon Airways, FedEx Express, Japan Airlines, Jetstar Japan, Nippon Cargo Airlines, and Peach Aviation. It’s served by many airlines from the neighboring countries and a few popular carriers from Europe, such as Air France, KLM, and Lufthansa.

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The scenery features an accurate rendition of the airport, with 4K textures, custom ground markings, custom taxiway signs, custom night lighting, performance-friendly optimization, accurate terraforming, and an accurately represented runway 06R/24L at its current status.

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It’s available on SimMarket for roughly $17.41, requiring at least 808.75 MB of free hard disk space to install.

Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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